Forsaken Wings
by Rhennella
Summary: TFA  It's been a long time since the Decepticons were stopped, and all seems fine. The Autobots made a mistake though: leaving some Decepticons unfound. No matter how long it takes, they will pay the price. T for some words and future conflict.
1. Part One Chapter 1

**Chapter One**

She crouched low in the late orbital cycle, blanketed by buildings as she scurried away from sight. There weren't many civilians around at this time of the cycle, especially where she lived. Still, she liked to keep a low profile. Not many even new she existed. She liked it that way.

There was movement behind her. She spun around and took her usual fighting stance, bringing her twin blades that connected to her black armor along her arms into a defensive position. Her battle mask covered the bottom portion of her face, as it always did. She hardly ever removed it. There wasn't anyone in sight, as far as she could see. She was in between two small buildings, maybe only one story each, so it wasn't much cover. She was facing a dead end, so there couldn't possibly be anyone there.

She knew better than that though.

"Show yourself," she ordered, managing to keep her voice low.

Someone lowered themselves from their position on the roof of one of the buildings. He or she wasn't a flier as far as she could tell, but he or she still landed gracefully in front of her. It was hard to see without any light, but it appeared to be a forest green and navy blue mech. He had a slim mold. His chassis was mostly green as well as his legs. Navy blue accented both said parts as well as colored the rest of his armor. His helm was black and his skin plating grey. His pedes were also black. She could see the wheels on his feet and shoulders, proving him to be a ground mech as she first suspected. No weapons were visible. Not yet at least.

She hated his blue optics though.

"Who are you?" She demanded, not moving from her stance.

"Designation Forward," the mech answered in a calm voice. "And you're Shadow I take it?"

"How do you know that?" Shadow asked, slightly worried.

"It is my job to know stuff. Now, don't worry, I'm not here to harm you." He took a step forward. She didn't lower her weapons.

"I don't trust strangers, sorry." She backed up, planning on simply flying away. She had been so close to home as it was.

"I have information for you."

That halted her plan, but didn't delete it. So many had used that one on her, but nothing ever turned out to be valuable. "I don't care. You can't trick me with your fake promises. You're just trying to bring me in. There's someone waiting to catch me if I run for it, isn't there?" There always was, but they never won. That was mostly because she could fly. Usually they were far more superior combat-wise.

"No, there isn't."

"I'm not going to fall for that one. You're just stalling." She took another step back, not out of fright, but her eagerness to leave.

"It's about your creators."

That halted her plan even more, but she still didn't cave in. "What about them?"

"And your brothers."

That completely stopped her. Her optic was wide as she mulled that over. No one ever mentioned the twins before. It was always her creators they tried to trick her about. She didn't rule out it being a trap, but hardly anyone even knew they existed. "Tell me all you want to so I can leave."

"They're online."

It could easily be a lie, but she wanted it to be true so much. No, she had to remind herself that they were gone forever. They would never come back. "You could easily be lying."

"True, I could. But I could also be telling you the truth about Glyde and Cloud."

He knew their names? That was pulling her even further into wanting to stay. She couldn't give in though. "They're not online. They were offlined by that big-chinned slagger."

"Not true. I happen to know them very well."

Another easily constructed fable. "Alright, tell me all you know and I won't harm you." That was partially a bluff, as she knew that she herself wasn't good at fighting. Of course, however he fought was a mystery to her.

He chuckled at that. "As you wish. After they were taken in by the elite guard, you would normally expect something drastic to happen. You and your family aren't very popular or well known, so why would they be taken?"

"To be experimented on." She glared at the memory.

"No, that isn't completely true."

"What are you talking about? It's all the truth I need. The slagger even said in front of me when my sire asked what he was doing. He said that he was going to conduct experiments. Use them as lab rats. Reconstruct them. He said that since they were no one important, it wouldn't matter to anyone. Well, it matters to me. You must know that." I kept my glare, even though it wasn't directed at Forward.

"That's a lie."

So now it's his turn to accuse? "You don't know what's a lie if you weren't there to here it."

"No, but I know for a fact that he lied to you and your family. It wasn't for experiments. You know that your family are Seekers."

"How could I not? I'm a Seeker, for Primus sake."

"But your parents weren't real Seekers."

"Ha, liar. That isn't making much sense to me." How could they not be real? They were right there and created her and the twins!

"What I mean is, they were just clones of someone else."

"Clones? You keep making less sense with every sound you make, you know that?"

"Look, you've heard of the Decepticon Starscream, I take it."

"Yeah, that fragger kept trying to offline Megatron." Traitor.

"He made some clones, and not all of them were found. Three were left unidentified until recently after Megatron was brought to justice."

You mean offlined. "So? You saying two of those were my creators?"

"No, not a chance. None of them seemed to get a long. But apparently the three met up at the crash sight of the _Nemesis_. There they found broken Seeker shells that they rebuilt to make their own clones. As far as we know they each made one. However that worked, we don't know the details. Starscream's femme clone created another femme. One of the two mech clones created your mech creator. You can figure out the rest."

"I'm not a clone!"

"What I mean is, those two clones settled down with each other and had sparklings like yourself. You and your brothers."

Shadow heard another movement, this one behind her. She kept her position, still feeling someone else's presence. She narrowed her optics, although only one could be seen by Forward. The other was hidden under her helm that covered the left side of her head. "Why are you telling me this?"

"Just to give you a little detail so your aren't so confused as to why the Elite Guard is trying to bring you in." The bot behind her shuffled closer.

"Who's behind me?" Shadow asked.

"Just my partner. She's been here much longer than you might think."

Suddenly losing interest, Shadow leapt into the air, hovering above the two. The unidentified femme shot a grapple hook that wrapped itself around her knee joint and started to pull her down.

No, she couldn't get caught like this. Ever since her creators had been offlined she had avoided all contact with anyone suspicious. They had made attempts at capturing her, though she never understood why they were so persistent. Even after Forwards little story it still wasn't clear as to why she was a target. Not her, but her family. She was just the last one left.

Using her blade on her right arm she cut through the metal rope and broke free of the pull. She didn't want to leave yet; Forward had told her so much and yet so little. She knew she had to leave, though. It wasn't safe in this area now.

She transformed into a Seeker jet and flew away as fast as she could. Glyde was faster, but the last time they'd raced she had been a much younger youngling. She still was technically a youngling, but older than before.

She wanted to go back and force Forward to tell her more, but that wasn't going to happen soon. She had learned of her creator's origins, even if it sounded far-fetched. She had never known another Seeker. Her parents were always neutrals. The war was long over now. The Autobots were the victors, let's all give a sarcastic yay!

Shadow hated the Autobots for breaking up her family. No, even before that she had despised them. For as long as she could remember, all the civilians looked down on her and her family like they were inferior. Just because they were Seekers. Just because the could fly. Just because they were different. She was always glad to know that her creators had never been Autobots and stayed neutral, and now she seemed to know why. It was because they were clones of Decepticons. What did that make her and the twins though?

Shadow continued to fly until her system was telling her she needed to recharge. She managed to find an old building that seem deserted before settling down into the peace of recharge.

She remembered when it was actually peaceful.

**So, hey there. This is my first fanfiction, and I welcome any comments you have. I tried not to make Shadow seem to cliche an OC, so I'm sorry if she seems that way. I will say that she's not that perfect character that everyone will like. Also, this story is in third person, but the POV for it changes between four different characters. It should be pretty obvious at the beginning who's view it's from. And yes, I'll tell you now, that there will be OCs, more than I'd like, but it's necessary.**

**Anyway, I hope you enjoy this story! Reviews would be nice :)**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

Slipstream sat at her usually chair in the _Nemesis._ She had taken command of her little group when the first arrived back here all of those stellar cycles ago. She had brought the pathetic Skywarp and annoying Thundercracker along with her to start her plan. So far everything was going accordingly. All she needed was a little more time.

"Um, excuse me - oh please don't hurt me!" Skywarp coiled in on himself when he saw her annoyed expression.

"Yes, what do you want?" She tried to ease up, but he was just so pathetic.

"Dirge and Thundercracker got into a fight again and then just can't seem to sort it out. I'm afraid I'll get hurt or one of them will accidentally offline the other. Could you help stop them?"

She sighed. Dirge was just so greedy all the time and Thundercracker thought he was the best at everything. Yes, they clashed. A lot. "What are Thrust and Ramjet doing?"

"Cheering on Dirge."

Of course they were. "I didn't have you rescue the liar just so he could lay around and do nothing." It was true; she had sent Skywarp into the brig when she found out about his teleporting to collect Ramjet and Sunstorm. Megatron would have been retrieved as well, but he had been offlined by the Autobots. Oh well, she didn't mind. She didn't partically like Megatron's company anyway.

Didn't make the Seekers' company any better though.

"Yes but, please?" Skywarp pleaded.

"Alright. What are they fighting over this time?" She rose from her seat and followed the coward over to her idiotic brothers.

"Rations."

True, the two fought a lot over that. It wasn't easy to get energon, so both were too stubborn to share with anyone else and usually stole Skywarp's.

When she reached them she saw her brother clone and Ramjet's clone sitting off to the side watching the brawl while her two other brothers decided that wrestling was the way to go today.

"Alright, knock it off!" She powered up her null ray and shot both Thundercracker and Dirge. They stopped and looked up at her from their position on the floor. "We all need energon so stop acting like sparklings and get over it! I'm tired of you two always fighting! I know you aren't going to stop, but at least do it when I'm off stealing the energon from passing ships."

They both stood up and stared at opposite ends of the room. "I just want to understand why he thinks he's worthy enough to even ask for my energon. That would give him more than me and that's just not right. I'm the superior one, not him," Thundercracker complained.

"I just want energon. Is that too much to ask?" Dirge defended. "There isn't enough around here as it is."

"Then why don't you two ever help me gather some?" Slipstream questioned. "Neither of you ever help. It's usually me, Skywarp, and Thrust that do the work. Even Ramjet helps. But you two don't do anything!"

"Sunstorm doesn't help," Dirge pointed out.

"Sunstorm is with Acid Storm and Dawn on Cybertron. They have their own duties to cover. And Thundercracker, your clone, Skyliner, ran away."

"He just never came back after he left for Cybertron last stellar cycle," Thundercracker answered, obviously not caring.

"Why don't I get a clone?" Dirge complained.

"At least you don't have an offline clone," Thrust pointed out.

Slipstream pointed her null ray at him. "Is there a point to that?"

"Yeah. Jetstream's offline. And she was _your_ clone."

"That has nothing to do with me! Dirge, you'll get your chance once we fix a new body."

"But why do you get two clones when I don't even have one?" Dirge whined.

"Because if we want our plan to work out then we need more femmes. I'm the only femme clone Starsceam created."

"But _he_ created a femme. So how do you know one of us won't?" Thrust added.

"I don't want to take that risk."

"I for one expected Skywarp's clone to offline. He is so inferior that his clone has to have been even worse," Thundercracker snickered. "That's why it didn't surprise me when he did. Skyliner would never be so foolish. Of course, even _my _clone is inferior to me."

Skywarp gave a shameful look to the ground.

"Okay, everyone stop," Slipstream took command again. "Just get back to what you were doing before your regularly scheduled fight and don't bother me unless it's important." She turned her back on them and went back to the command room she fancied. In front was the scanners that would pick up any nearby passing ships she could raid.

She sighed. Sometimes she wished she had never found Dirge. He had been one of Starscream's earlier clones that he apparently just didn't like. She could see why. She had found him when the scanner picked him up. She never quite figured out why he was returning to the ship but he did. She never let him clone anyone for another reason though: in case they were like him.

Skywarp's clone was a mech Seeker named Streaker. He and Jetstream had fulfilled their purpose and had sparklings. Slipstream never did contact the offspring, but from what her clone had reported the Elite Guard had taken the oldest twins in and were never seen again. Then her own clone was taken and from what Sunstorm told her, offlined along with Streaker. That left the youngest. Sunstorm lost track of her when she ran away to hide. Smart femme.

Sunstorm cloned himself and created Acid Storm around the same time she created her second clone: Dawn. The two clones are now living together under the watch of Sunstorm on Cybertron where they will try what Jetstream and Streaker did.

Ramjet's clone wasn't a total liar like he was, which pleased her. Thundercrackers clone stayed with them for most of the stellar cycles, but decided to leave not long ago.

It all stayed quiet - or at least, normal - until a few breems later when she got a transmission from Sunstorm. She opened it to see the smiling face of the suck up.

"Ah, how wonderful it is to be graced by the presence of the best femme Seeker to ever exist," he praised.

"Save it. What do you want?" Slipstream replied.

"I hope you're pleased to know that I've located the youngling Seeker."

"Finally. I want you to take her to Dawn and Acid Storm and have them and you explain things to her."

"Yes, of course. I wouldn't think of doing anything else."

"Just do it. Slipstream out." She ended the transmission. At least she could trust Sunstorm to follow orders.

The scanner picked up an approaching cargo ship heading past them. Speaking of loyalty...

"Help us this time, Dirge," she ordered once she found him laying around. She had already gathered Skywarp and Ramjet. Thrust would stay here this time with Thundercracker.

"Why should I?" He asked. "What's in it for me?"

"Well, for starters, more energon." That didn't seem to appeal enough to him to make him want to come. She sighed. "Fine. If you come, I'll let you make a clone."

That got him. "Really? Well, then maybe I'll lend a servo just this once."

"Your clone better be more useful than you," she mumbled quietly. He didn't seem to hear. She raised her voice. "Alright, let's go."

She led them outside of the crash site and transformed. They followed suite and followed her up to the cargo ship. Ramjet and Dirge blasted a hole in the ship that they all flew into easily. Once inside, they found themselves lucky enough to already be in the cargo bay.

"Alright, Skywarp, take what you can and come back for more," she commanded after they had transformed. He nodded and began stealing energon, warping back when he couldn't carry anymore only to come back for a second load.

"Ramjet, Dirge, see if there's anything else worth taking," she said while going to the closed door to wait for Autobots. The alarm had already began and it was only a matter of time before they were found.

"There's some weapons in here," Dirge stated.

"Take them back then."

"Fine, but I want the first pick." He lifted a crate and flew out with it.

"There's just so much on this ship to take!" Ramjet exclaimed.

"Alright, then help Skywarp with the energon." He followed orders and took the remaining cubes back to the crashed ship they had been living in for stellar cycles.

The door finally opened to reveal two mechs already armed. It was fine with her though; she had gotten what they came for.

"Stop her!" One of the mechs called out. Slipstream became aware at that point that she was the only one left.

"Just try me!" She challenged, firing her null rays at them. She hit one right in the chassis and he fell back from the blast. The other fired at her but she dodged it easily. She returned fire and gave a similar treatment to the remaining mech as the last. After he was down, she fled back feeling victorious. She and her brothers had never failed so far, otherwise they would have been captured. The Autobots on Cybertron obviously knew about the Seekers, but none had come to stop them. They were the last remaining Decepticons left though, so it confused her as to why they hadn't been taken to the brig. Ramjet and Sunstorm had even escaped. But apparently the only Seekers they cared about were the ones back on Cybertron.

As long as things stayed the same, her plan would succeed in no time.

**From now on, I'll upload a chapter every other day. I just wanted to upload the first two chapters around the same time to make sure no one was extremely confused. Chapter three will carry more information. Author's notes will always be down here unless giving warnings, but so far there shouldn't be any really bad things that are M rated, so it should be fine. Starting with the next chapter, I'll also answer questions down here and respond to some reviews that need it.**

**I liked writing this chapter, having to deal with all of the clones and all. If anyone's confused as to who's who, allow me to write which clones belong to whom here:  
>Starscream: Dirge, Ramjet, Thundercracker, Skywarp, Slipstream, Sunstorm<br>Ramjet: Thrust  
>Thundercracker: Skyliner<br>Skywarp: Streaker  
>Slipstream: Jetstream, Dawn<br>Sunstorm: Acid Storm**

**I hope that clears up any confusion. Well, thanks for reading.  
><strong>


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three**

Shadow awoke feeling fresh and ready for a new start. She had to, otherwise she would end up in a pile of scrap. That wouldn't do her any good though. She didn't want to offline at such a young age. It wasn't fair to her that she had no family to live with and Autobots were after her for unknown reasons.

The mystery had been altered though by the Autobot Forward. If he was right and her brothers were still online, then she had to find them and free them of there certain imprisonment. Why though, were the Autobots so against Seekers?

She knew why. It was because of that slagging Starscream. He had been a Decepticon, not her. Of course, she would have been. That was why the Autobots didn't like Seekers. All the Seekers she knew would probably join the Decepticons if asked to.

That was why her creators had made her different than a normal seeker. She had extra armor on he hips and her helm was shaped differently. Her wings also pointed down instead of up. She didn't have null rays either, but that was more because she had never been old enough to have them. After Glyde and Cloud had been taken though, her creators let her have blades attached to her armor on her arms. They stretched out over her servos and were helpful in close combat.

That got her thinking of her carrier, Jetstream. She had taught Shadow how to fight in close combat. That was up until both her creators were taken as well and offlined. Shadow used her training and skills whenever she needed to. If she had never had that training, she wouldn't still be free right now. Well, as free as she could be.

She put her servos on her helm. It covered her cranial unit and wrapped around it down a little past the chin. It also covered her left optic. Because of her battle mask, the only thing visible on her face was her right optic. She also had sensors on her helm that her sire, Streaker, had decided to add. They were desguised to look more like a style so no one would think about it when they first saw her. They were small and pointed down at the ends. The widened her range, allowing her a head start when she needed it. Sometimes, though, she forgot about them when panicking.

Her servos moved up to the sensors that were now informing her of another's presence. She couldn't tell who or what they were, but they were just outside the building. She lowered her servos and waited for them to leave, but they didn't. Instead, they seemed to be coming closer. She backed up into the wall and brought her self in a defensive position as the door opened.

She was greeted by the smiling face of an orange Seeker.

"What an honor it is to be the one to find you after all this time," he said, coming closer. "And might I add you look rather stunning in that extra detail put into you."

"Who are you and what do you want?" She then noticed the Decepticon insignia on his wings. "You're a Decepticon?"

"Yes, I am. Don't be frightened, I am one of your kind after all."

He did seem familiar though. She couldn't quite figure it out. "What do you want?"

"To take you to some other Seekers and explain things to you. Surely you want to know of your origins and family?"

Yes she did. And she would rather hear it from a Seeker than an Autobot. "Alright, but I'm still wary of you."

"That's understandable. Don't worry, I would never harm such an elegant youngling such as yourself."

"Who are you then?" Shadow lowered her arms but didn't get any closer.

"Sunstorm. I know who you are, Shadow."

"You do?" She shouldn't seem surprised. The Autobots following her always seemed to know who she was.

"Yes. Don't worry, my excellent clone Acid Storm and the beautiful Dawn will help me explain everything to you."

She hesitated, not having any reason to trust another bot in a long time, but eventually nodded and followed the Seeker out. They both transformed and she followed him as he led her across town, keeping low and out of the more busy areas. She turned into a normal Seeker jet, even though she looked slightly different.

As she followed him, she remembered where she knew him from. He was one of the Decepticons the Autobots had captured just before Megatron himself. There had never been any news of him escaping, so it shocked her a little to see that he was out. If he was, than maybe her brothers were.

It took a megacycle to reach their destination, and Shadow was glad to finally land. She had been on long flights before, but usually around the time when most were in recharge. Of course, there wasn't really a daytime and nighttime on Cybertron, but there were similar hours that bots shared for recharge and similar hours for their duties. Right now it was the latter.

They had landed in front of a small home in a small neighborhood that looked rundown. Most of the homes were empty and some Shadow couldn't believe were still standing. But the one they were approaching looked the best out of them all by far. That was probably why the said Seekers chose it.

Sunstorm knocked on the door three times, which confused Shadow. She had never heard of a Decepticon with enough manners to knock. He hadn't knocked when he found the place Shadow was in. Of course, if he had knocked, she wouldn't have let him enter.

A bright green Seeker with red lines on his wings opened the door from the inside and beckoned them in hastily. She and Sunstorm quickly piled in. The green Seeker pressed a button and shut the door behind them.

"Sunstorm, what a pleasant surprise," the seeker greeted him.

"Not as much as it is a pleasure for me to be in your presence Acid Storm," Sunstorm said with a little bow.

"Who is it?" A soft voice said from behind Shadow. She turned to see a femme Seeker walk in. Her paint job was mostly yellow with a light pink line on each of her wings. Her helm was blue-violet. "Oh, it's Sunstorm again. I should have expected you; you're our only visitor."

"How nice to see you too oh glorious Dawn."

Dawn looked at Shadow and narrowed her optics. "And who is that?"

"I'm Shadow," Shadow introduced herself. "I'm a Seeker too, even though I look different."

"You're Jetstream's creation I take it?"

It was Shadow's turn to feel as if surprise wasn't the right emotion. "Yes, I am. How do you know her?"

"You could say she's my older sister. Her and I were both cloned by the same Seeker femme, Slipstream." Dawn shuffled her pedes as if she was uncomfortable. That's when Shadow noticed something was off with her. She looked tired and her optics seemed to wander.

"So, it's true then. You're all clones." It was more of a statement than a question.

"I am the clone of Sunstorm, who is the clone of Starscream," Acid Storm clarified. "And soon you won't be the youngest Seeker, Shadow."

That's when she understood it. "Dawn is carrying?" She had to ask anyway.

"It won't be long now," Acid Storm mentioned. He walked over and put an arm around Dawn's waist. "It was our assignment but I must say I've really fallen for her."

"You were forced together?" Shadow questioned, already knowing the answer.

"Yes, as were your creators."

"My creators loved each other and our family!" She protested.

"Your point?" Dawn asked. "That's why Jetstream was paired with Streaker and not the other mech. They got along better and a relationship did form. Not all forced couples end up despising one another."

Shadow nodded in understanding, relief flooding through her. For a moment there she thought that her whole family had been a lie. Her family... "How did you escape?" She pointed towards Sunstorm.

"It was a brilliant plan involving Slipstream, Thundercracker, and Skywarp to get me and Ramjet out of the brig. The three of them snuck to Cybertron on a cargo ship and once they were close enough, Skywarp warped in and grabbed me and Ramjet one at a time before warping each of us back to the ship, which at that point Slipstream and Thundercracker had taken over. We flew the ship back to our base on the crashed _Nemesis _where we cloned ourselves." Sunstorm paused. "Actually, the three had already each cloned themselves once. It was a wonderful plan that went very smoothly for us."

Shadow didn't hesitate to charge with her next question. "My brothers, Cloud and Glyde, can't you rescue them as well?"

"Negative," Dawn replied. When she saw the enraged expression on Shadow she clarified. "In time we will before anything happens to them, don't worry. We just can't let the Autobots think that we're doing anything drastic. They already have their suspicions of us Seekers. If we leave the twins there then one of three things will happen. The first, would be the Autobots would think that your family was after all just a neutral family that had no ties to the rest of us. The second would be that they think we're not planning anything and that we don't care what happens to them or don't know. They'll calm down and forget about us if we don't do anything against them. Or, thirdly, they'll terminate them from fear of something bad happening."

Shadow thought back. "I ran into an Autobot last orbital cycle and he mentioned Slipstream, Thunder-whatever and Skywarp having cloned each other and that two of those clones were my creators. Well, he didn't know their designations, but the Autobots know of their activities."

"So it's unlikely the first option will happen."

Shadow was depressed at that. "When will you free them?"

"When the time comes," that was Acid Storm.

"When what time comes? Can't you explain to me what's happening?"

The pair exchanged a look then Acid Storm seemed to wait for Sunstorm to begin. He happily obliged. "It all started many stellar cycles ago when I was first created. Me and my fellow clones all ended up betraying Starscream, except Thundercracker and Skywarp, who had accidentally fallen through a space bridge. Ramjet and I ended up getting captured by those daring Autobots and stayed that way until rescued.

"After our rescue, Slipstream filled us in on what had happened in our absence. She had stayed on Earth and found a couple of Allspark fragments before fleeing the planet to find Thundercracker and Skywarp. It took her a long time to locate the magnificent Seekers and by the time the trio returned to the crashed site of the _Nemesis,_ Megatron had already been defeated and arrested.

"Starscream had left many destroyed empty bodies that they fixed up and used along with protoforms. Slipstream told me that she had plans to increase the Seeker population but at the time she wouldn't tell me why. Jetstream, Skyliner, and Streaker had already been assembled and Jetstream and Streaker had already taken a liking in one another. The handsome Skyliner just ignored most of us so it didn't surprise me to find out he had left.

"Using the stolen cargo ship, I took the beautiful Jetstream and the marvalous Streaker to Cybertron where they started a family. At first the Autobots didn't seem to care, but you know that didn't last long, as you are very clever yourself."

Yeah, Shadow knew the Autobots hadn't ignored them forever. She wished they had; she could have still been with her creators and brothers.

"Is there anything else I didn't cover?" Sunstorm asked himself.

"Yeah, why did you bring me here?" Shadow answered for him.

"Oh yes, thank you for reminding me!" She flashed a grin at her. "Technically you are a relative and it'd be a waste if the Autobots caught another Seeker, even if you are still a youngling. Us Seekers should stick together."

"Is there another reason?" Shadow wasn't convinced.

"Not at the moment, but I bet a youngling as smart as you will pick up on it eventually."

Shadow sighed and took a seat on a couch in the sitting area. "So, I'll be living here from now on?"

"Yes, with us," Acid Storm answered. "Sunstorm won't always be here."

"Someone else will be here soon though," Dawn reminded them.

Shadow was the youngest, so she had never been around a sparkling. She briefly wondered if the other three had if they were all clones. She certainly hoped they knew how to care for one because she didn't have the slightest idea herself.

* * *

><p><strong>First off, I want to say that I don't know or remember what actually happened to the protoforms Starscream had. I imagine they were taken back to Cybertron, but for the sake of this story, let's just pretend they stayed there.<strong>

**So, to make sure this is clear, Shadow isn't in any way special besides her looks. She doesn't have some sort of power the Autobots want, she's just a Seeker. Also! I will be using characters from G1 as well as OCs, and they'll show up eventually. I aslo never finished watching G1, so I'm sorry if anyone is OOC.**

**Next time we'll meet a couple mentioned characters and another two! Thanks to anyone who added this to their alerts! Comments are welcome, please!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four**

Cloud leaned against the wall behind him where he sat on the ground. Glyde sat beside him in one of those rare moments when the Autobots let them be together. The Autobots had probably been trying to show remorse. Well, Cloud didn't understand why they were there in the first place. Ever since they arrived back when they were still younglings they hadn't gotten any news about anything. They didn't even know what was going on with their family.

Cloud gently took his brothers servo in his. Glyde was the only family he still had and he didn't want to loose him. He cared for his younger twin just like Glyde cared for him. Both seekers were online and unrestricted, but no conversation ever came up. There were some greetings and "I've missed you"s at the beginning, but even though it felt like forever since the last time they'd been together, there just wasn't anything to talk about.

Cloud looked over to the Autobot that was guarding their cell. He had seen her sometimes when she took her shift, but usually it was two other mechs. He had always attempted some sort of conversation with the mechs to get some information on life outside of the brig, but she wouldn't talk to him. The other mechs usually kept silent as well, but they would respond to the more friendly questions that Cloud would ask just because he was bored. She wouldn't respond to even that.

And yet it was her that spoke first. "You've been separated for cycles on end and yet you don't even do anything when together?"

It shocked Cloud to hear her speak. Him and his brother both looked over to her when she spoke, silent at first.

Glyde answered. "What is there to talk about?"

She shrugged, and Cloud was sure it would end like that. Once again he was proven wrong.

"Do you want a topic?" She still didn't look at them, so Cloud could only see the back of her red helm. He could see the back of her black and white body as well, but he couldn't see her face.

"Sure," Cloud excepted.

"You can each ask me a question and I'll truthfully answer them. Starting with the white seeker."

That was Cloud. He was white with a little mint green here and there. Glyde was black and yellow. Cloud thought hard about his question. It didn't take him long to figure out what he wanted to know most. "What has happened to our family ever since we were taken away?" He made sure to add taken away to it in the hopes of making the Autobot guilty.

"Alright then." She turned to face them and revealed her white face and blue optics. She didn't show any emotion, however. "Your parents were taken as well only a couple of stellar cycles after yourselves. They were interrogated by high ranking officers and it didn't end well. Both were offlined for a reason I have not been informed of and their bodies are still here for another reason I don't know of."

Glyde interrupted her. "We are just a normal family of neutrals! They had no right to torture them for anything!" Cloud could feel his anger through their twin bond.

"See, that's the thing. The Autobots who interrogated them didn't seem to believe they were neutral and thought they were Decepticons."

"Just because we're seekers doesn't mean we're Decepticons," Glyde argued.

"I understand, but the way you're barking at me doesn't help your case, dear."

Glyde shut up, and Cloud pushed her forward. Well, not physically, but verbally. "What about our sister?"

"I honestly don't know much about what happened to her. I think she's on the run from Autobots or something. Won't be long 'til we catch her and you three can be one big happy family again." She sighed, then turned away.

After a moment of silence, Glyde spoke again, this time calmly. "I have a question for you." She turned towards him and waited for him to ask. He smirked. "What's your designation?"

Cloud could have banged his helm into the wall behind him repetitively if he didn't have any self control. He didn't understand why Glyde would waste his question on something she would probably have told them anyway. Then, when he thought about it more, there wasn't much else to ask. They had figured out why they were there earlier on. It didn't take a genius to know that they would never be let out unless reluctantly. So what else to ask?

"Nowli," she answered. "I never really bothered to learn yours. What are they?"

"I'm Glyde, and he's Cloud." The yellow and black twin introduced.

"Well, this was a nice little chat, Seekers, but I really must be going." Nowli started to walk past them, but then stopped right on the end when Cloud called out for her to wait. "Yes?"

"Why did you speak to us?" Cloud asked the question that had been bugging him the whole time.

She smiled. "Why not?"

"You haven't talked to me the entire time I've been here. Why start now?"

"I was testing to see how persistent you were. You're either not very, or you know when to quit." She still didn't leave, probably waiting to see if Cloud had anything more to say.

He didn't, really. All he let out was "Oh." She took that as her cue to leave. Shortly after her departure, a mech came in. He was the mech that Cloud usually saw as the guard. He didn't guard just them, but the section of the stockade that they were in. Cloud hadn't come in contact with any of his other cellmates besides his brother though.

"Shut yer trap and don't bother me, Decepticons," the guard ordered.

"We're not Decepticons," Glyde retorted.

"In my book you are, now be quiet. I'm not havin' the best day right now, so allow me some peace." He took a seat on a chair across from them and offlined his optics. He was an orange mech, and even though he was the most frequent guard, never had he told Cloud his designation.

Cloud turned to Glyde and whispered, so as not to anger the mech even further. "Do you know his name?"

Glyde put a moment of thought into it, then replied: "I think another guard called him Iron-something."

Cloud decided to mentally call him Iron for the moment. He felt his brother get nervous again before looking at his slightly scared face.

"What if we spend the rest of our lives in here?" Glyde asked him in a quiet tone while looking at the ground. It was like Glyde to get nervous over things sometimes.

"We won't. They'll have to let us out sometime," Cloud reassured him.

"Or they'll offline us like our creators."

Cloud narrowed his optics. He knew he couldn't forget that possibility, but he didn't want to think like that. He wanted to hold onto the belief that he and Glyde would get out of this prison and find Shadow and try to live normally again. It sounded too good to be true, though. Yeah, it would be even better if their creators were with them. You can't raise the dead though.

"They don't have any right to offline us. It wouldn't be very Autobot like," Cloud decided. They were still using hushed tones to keep the orange mech from hearing.

"They had no right to offline _them_ either."

"Maybe they didn't," Cloud pushed. He knew it was a lost battle to wish that; even he didn't believe it was possible.

"Cloud, they did. You heard Nowli."

"What if she was lying?"

"I wouldn't put it past her to." Even though Cloud nodded in agreement, he still thought Nowli was better than Iron. At least she talked to them, even if it had been only once.

"Cloud, I have another question?" Cloud could tell Glyde wasn't feeling as nervous now that his mind was off the possible death by Autobots.

"Yes?"

"If you were forced to give an answer, would you join the Autobots or the Decepticons?" Glyde looked up at him, determination on his face.

"Frankly, I would rather stay neutral. I can't say I like the Autobots after what they've done to us and our family, but I don't necessarily agree with the Decepticons' ways." It was the truth, he didn't really know who he would rather join.

"I wouldn't be an Autobot, that's for sure." Glyde's purple optics flashed red for a moment, and Cloud felt a little worried for his brother. He wasn't the smartest bot around, and Cloud didn't want him to make a mistake he'd regret by joining the Decepticons.

"Glyde, be careful, okay?" Cloud advised.

Glyde looked confused, but didn't say anything. He just nodded his head in response.

"Good. The times almost up. We don't have much longer with each other. Then it'll be another half a stellar cycle before we see each other again." Cloud looked and sounded depressed.

"Don't worry, Cloud. We still have the twin bond."

Glyde was right. They could feel each other through it and sometimes communicate through it. It was one of the things that kept both of them sane all of the stellar cycles in imprisonment.

Yes, they had purple optics. It was because they were neutral though. Cloud had heard of an Autobot who's optics turned purple when he went somewhat insane from being imprisoned for a long time. The bot ended up sticking to the Decepticon side. The twin's optics weren't purple from insanity, fortunately.

"Hey, you two," Iron looked up at them and they exchanged glances before returning the stare. "I can hear you mumblin' over there. What are you talking 'bout?" He was suspicious, that much Cloud knew and could understand.

"Life inside here," Cloud answered somewhat truthfully. They had sort of discussed it.

"Hey, Ironhead," Glyde started but was cut off by the mech.

"It's Iron_hide_."

"Alright, Ironhide. Tell us if our creators are gone."

Ironhide smirked. "Yeah, they're gone alright. Saw it with my own optics. Now hush up, I'm trying to catch up on my recharge." He offlined his optics again.

Cloud felt Glyde's anger and depression. He himself was feeling depressed as well, just not as angry as Glyde was. Cloud truly hoped Glyde wouldn't become a Decepticon. He wanted the two of them to stay neutral for as long as they could, even if that meant staying in the stockade for the rest of their lives. No, Cloud rethought that. He didn't want to stay there for his whole life, and he was sure Glyde felt the same. That was why he thought Glyde would choose to be a Decepticon though.

Cloud thought about the point in being a Decepticon now. Megatron had been offlined only a stellar cycle after his capture in fear that he would break out and start his conquest anew. There really wasn't anyone else that could lead the remaining Decepticons and keep them together. If a bot was a Decepticon now and not in the stockade, there was a good chance they wouldn't team up with the remaining Decepticons. No they would, but they wouldn't agree on a leader. All Decepticons would want to be the leader unless they really valued the leadership of someone else.

So, if Glyde did become a Decepticon, Cloud started to realize that life might not change much. It'll just be his hatred for Autobots that fuels his want to be a Decepticon. He knows Glyde wouldn't be stupid enough to actually attack an Autobot who was actually trained and knew how to fight. A civilian, maybe, but there wouldn't be any point to that.

Cloud could feel him getting nervous again and pulled him into a one armed hug. Glyde leaned against him and offlined his optics, deciding to rest. There was a berth in the cell, but neither wanted to move to it. So they just sat like that, both now trying to fall into recharge.

And they did.

Alas, that moment couldn't last forever though. When their time together was up, Ironhide directed Glyde back to his separate cell.

"See you later then," Cloud called out to him.

"Yeah, bro, see you then. I wish it was sooner though," Glyde called back, his voice getting more distant as he was moved further away.

"Yeah, me too." Cloud didn't hear a response. Instead, he heard the sound of pedes against metal and soon found Ironhide walked back to his seat. Glyde had been moved to the other end of the section he was in, and another guard may have been situated at that end. It's just there weren't many prisoners so they probably didn't need another guard. If that's the case, then Ironhide would be better if he positioned himself in the middle. Oh well, Cloud didn't complain that he was practically being babysat by the orange mech when there was probably no one at Glyde's end.

And so another orbital cycle began.

* * *

><p>The whole optic color thing...well I chose purple because it's the combination of red and blue. I know Swindle has purple optics, and I don't know why, but I chose purple anyway. And if you didn't figure it out, the bot I mentioned that went insane in the stockade was Wasp.<p>

LucasVN-Yeah, I was disappointed with the ending. I do believe Dirge was supposed to be in the finale, but for some reason wasn't. I also read that there was supposed to be a clip of Slipstream finding the dead body of Starscream, but I didn't incluce that in this story.

Thanks to any reviews, or anyone who added this to their alerts and of favorites! I really appreciate it. If there are any questions or comments, I'll be happy to answer to them. Unless it gives something away, then I won't be able to. :)


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter Five**

Slipstream went to the hardly ever used room to collect a protoform. There weren't many left. She had promised Dirge he could clone himself though, and she kept her promise. She didn't need him bothering her about it any longer. He complained all the time that it wasn't fair to him that everyone else had a clone besides him. He stated proudly that he should have been the one to have two clones instead of Slipstream. Thundercracker argued that _he_ should have had that right. That led to another fight between the two.

Slipstream sighed. Having so many Seekers around wasn't exactly pleasant. She wished she had Dawn with her to keep her company, but she was on Cybertron. It was good to have someone on Cybertron to keep up with what's going on there, but Slipstream still wished Dawn hadn't been the one to go. At least she didn't have to listen to Sunstorm all the time anymore. That was one of the reasons she sent the orange Seeker.

"Slipstream!" Dirge called out. She put on her usual face and left to find the Allspark fragment, still holding the protoform. There was enough left of the first one for two more clones. After that she would only have one shard left.

Dirge continued to call her name with impatience as she broke off a piece. "I'm coming!" She called out to him with equal impatience. She walked out and found him, handing him the protoform. "Here, build your clone and then you can have the shard." She left him to go back to her favorite room: the command room. With Dirge out of the way for the moment, she could have some peace to herself.

She decided to contact Sunstorm to see how it was going down on Cybertron. She waited for him to show on the screen, and when he did, he greeted her in the usual manner.

"Oh how wonderful it is to see my excellent sister clone again. To what honor do I have to see you now?" Sunstorm did a little bow. He was inside somewhere, maybe with Acid Storm and Dawn, but Slipstream couldn't tell.

"Just want your latest report. And save the compliments, Sunstorm." She felt like rolling her optics as he continued to smile.

"Well, I hope you're pleased to know that I found Shadow and she's living with my clone and Dawn. I explained to her about her origin and ours, but not your full plan."

"Good. Anything new going on there?"

"Nothing I've heard of. The sparkling is expected soon. Do you have any names for it? We don't know if the adorable couple is having a mech or femme."

"I'll leave the naming to them. I only want to know if there is anything report worthy for you to tell me."

"Would you like to meet the clever youngling?"

Slipstream thought it over. "If she has anything to say, I guess it would be alright to meet Jetstreams youngling."

Sunstorm seemed to brighten at that answer. "Then I'll gladly go fetch her for you. I'm at the house after all, she shouldn't be too hard to find, even though she is a smart little thing." Sunstorm turned to his right and called for Acid Storm. Slipstream heard the green Seeker reply with a "Yes, Sunstorm?". "Could your excellency go and get Shadow for me, please?" Acid Storm must have complied, because Sunstorm turned back to Slipstream still smiling. "Just a moment."

Slipstream waited hardly a cycle before a small dark purple and black femme was pushed forward and into her sight. She didn't look at Slipstream though.

"Hey, what do you want?" She questioned Sunstorm.

Sunstorm just apologized to her and said "This is Slipstream, Shadow."

Shadow looked to where he was pointing, which must have been some sort of screen because Shadow seemed to see her. "You're a Seeker too."

"Thanks miss obvious," Slipstream said sarcastically. "Though you don't look like a Seeker." She crossed her arms across her chassis.

"I am a Seeker," Shadow stated. "I just look different. It was my creators idea to make me not look like a Seeker so the Autobots might leave me alone. That didn't exactly work." Shadow narrowed her only visible optic. "So you're one of Starscream's clones."

It wasn't a question, and Slipstream glared at the mention of the worthless Seeker that created her. "Yes, I am. But don't compare me to that pile of slag. He would have been offlined long before I was created if it wasn't for his Allspark fragment."

"So my femme creator was a clone of you? You have a different color scheme then her."

"Well duh, I wasn't going to make her look exactly like myself. And you don't see me or any of Starscream's clones looking just like him. You've met Sunstorm, you should have realized that we'd look different."

Slipstream couldn't tell very well because of the lack of facial features she could see on the youngling, but she looked embarrassed. It was Slipstreams turn for a question. "Why do you cover your left optic?"

"That's none of your business." Now Shadow seemed angry. Slipstream didn't press it any further though.

"Is there anything you wish to know?" Slipstream asked.

Shadow was quiet for a moment, then she talked. "Would you happen to know the current state of my creators?"

"Offline. Both of them. Sorry kid, but things happen." Slipstream was a little remorseful for losing two Seekers, but she didn't show it.

She could tell that Shadow was angry when her already red optic flashed brighter for a moment. "I thought so, but I wanted a confirmation." She did look depressed and Slipstream had to remember that she was still a youngling.

Before Slipstream could say anything else, a certain Seeker barged in behind her. "I'm finished, now give me the fragment!" Dirge ordered, holding out his servo.

Slipstream was visibly annoyed by the outburst and turned to Dirge to prove it. "Quiet, Dirge. You can have it in a moment. I'm a little busy right now."

Dirge didn't leave though. Instead, he walked up behind Slipstream and stared into the screen. "Who is that with Sunstorm?"

"I'm Shadow, who're you?" Shadow, who must have noticed him, replied.

Instead of answering her question, Dirge turned to Slipstream. "Why does she get to look different? That's no fair. If anyone should have extra armor and equipment, it's me. I know you've been keeping some from me, now hand it over!"

"I don't have anything of the sort, Dirge. But I am curious, how did you prepare the clone so easily?" She momentarily ignored the screen and the Seekers on it.

"Thrust and Ramjet helped me, and I had already started fixing the Seeker shell before you gave me the protoform," Dirge said matter-of-fact way. "That's right, give me the fragment!" He held out his servo again.

Slipstream rolled her optics and turned back to the screen. "I'll contact you later, Sunstorm. If you have any urgent news, contact me. Bye then." Without waiting for a reply, she ended the transmission and turned back to a very impatient Dirge.

"Give me the fragment," he repeated.

Slipstream sighed and handed it over. "Let me see him." Dirge nodded and led her out to the largest room where they all went for meetings or just to talk with one another. So it wasn't shocking to see everyone present in the room. They probably wanted to meet the newest Seeker once he is finished.

Dirge opened the spark chamber and put the spark in. The cockpit closed and in a matter of nanoclicks, the optics were glowing red and the navy blue and yellow Seeker was for the first time online.

"Why are there so many bots staring at me?" Was the first thing the mech said. "Did I spill energon on me or something?"

It didn't surprise anyone that the Seeker new about energon. Clones tended to already know what the creator knew.

"What are you going to call him?" Thrust asked Dirge.

"I hadn't thought of that." Dirge admitted.

"I'll give him a designation," Thundercracker decided.

"What? He's my clone, get your own!" Dirge defended.

"My clone is gone. I deserve to name him anyway."

"He does deserve it, Dirge," Ramjet lied. He never didn't lie.

"Quiet, Ramjet, I'm thinking of names," Thundercracker commanded.

"Don't bother, 'cause I'm naming him," Dirge argued.

"Stop fighting!" Skywarp's plea went unheard.

"Does he have any idea?" Thrust wondered, talking about the new Seeker.

Said Seeker realized Thrust was talking about him. "I don't have any idea. How could you _not _have something to call me?" He sounded slightly angry. While Dirge and Thundercracker continued fighting with little outbursts from the other Seekers, Slipstream tried to figure out the Seeker's personality. Clones still most of the time had one aspect of the original's personality. Sometimes it was the same the original had, just not as extreme. Streaker was startled easily, but not afraid to speak up for himself. Skyliner was Thundercracker's quiet side and didn't like to mingle with the others. Acid Storm was usually happy, and Dawn was Slipstream's calm and smart side. She had never figured Thrust out. He just seemed normal. Maybe even the opposite of Ramjet. Sometimes Slipstream thought that could happen; the clone would be the opposite. Jetstream had been like that. She was pretty energetic and happy.

"How about, Dark Jet?" Dirge suggested.

"That's a horrible name," Thundercracker commented and Slipstream silently agreed with him. "He's not even all dark colors. This is why I should name him."

"You're not naming him, I am." Dirge was not going to let Thundercracker help him, that much was certain.

"You're taking forever, just come up with something," the new Seeker complained. That's when Slipstream thought over everything he'd said so far. Oh no, Slipstream didn't want to admit it, but she had an idea what his personality was going to be like.

And she was going to hate it.

"I can help you think of something," Ramjet offered. Alright, so he would be no help. Slipstream looked back at the others. Skywarp was panicking at the argument still taking place between Thundercracker and Dirge, Thrust was leaning against the wall, and Ramjet, had just walked off. The new Seeker just stood there, looking rather annoyed.

"Alright, shut the frag up!" Slipstream yelled, causing Skywarp to warp out. "Dirge is naming him. If any of you have any suggestions for him, talk to him about it." She left them then, not wanting to hear anymore of the current discussion. She just hoped he wouldn't come up with something stupid like his first suggestion.

Slipstream returned to the command room and stared at the screen. Maybe she should contact her other acquaintance on Cybertron. It'd been a while since she last spoke with her. It may be dangerous to contact her, though, but she decided to risk it.

She sent out the transmission, waiting for the other to answer. It took a moment, but Slipstream soon found herself staring into the red optics of her fellow Decepticon. She was midnight blue and black with a white helm. She was also a ground vehicle, so she couldn't fly without assistance. A face mask covered her mouth, but she retracted it when she spoke.

"Slipstream, it's been a while," the femme greeted.

Said Seeker nodded. "Yes, it has. What news do you have for me?"

"I know that the Autobots have lost track of Shadow. She should be fine for now. I managed to get some information from some of the officers last orbital cycle and found that they'll be discussing the fate of the twins soon."

If the femme had been going for a reaction, she didn't get one. "They've done that before, but all they get out of it is to keep them there. I'm not worried. If they do come up with something, I want word of it."

"Don't worry, I'll make sure to listen in on it. I love to spy."

"Anything else you've picked up?"

The femme smirked. "Yeah. It appears that cargo ships headed out to give supplies to Autobots in other areas of the universe keep getting robbed."

Slipstream smirked as well. "Now I wonder who's doing that?"

"Keep up the good work and I'll keep up mine. I'm out." The transmission ended with Slipstream still feeling a little pleased with herself.

She sat there for a moment in her usual seat before she heard someone yell from another room. "I DON'T LIKE THAT NAME!"

Slipstream chuckled. Sounds like Dirge screwed up again in the naming department.

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter V! I just felt like saying that. In advance for the next chapter, I'm sorry if anyone is OOC. I bet you can guess what the next chapters about from what was said in this one.<strong>

**LucasVn: I was worried about Ironhide, hoping I didn't over due it. I also hate typing with accents because I usually mess them up. Still, I gave it a shot, so I'm glad I did well with Ironhide. And if I had to give an age to the twins, I'd say around fifteen or sixteen. Shadow's around that twelve to thirteen area. Any information I got on Dirge I got from the TFwikia site, but I couldn't find anything on Thrust for Animated. That is why I made him a clone of Ramjet. I do remember seeing that, if he were a clone of Starscream, he'd be his aggressive side, so in the future I sort of go with that. So yeah, I didn't know that about the two and Swindle. Interesting. If the Seeker fanfic is as good as you say, then sure, you can PM it to me.**

**Question: How many stellar cycles (one year) should equal one human year? I know they tend to live a long time, so I'd think they'd age slower than us, so I want anyone's opinion on how long it should be. If I'm being confusing, allow me to try and say it in a more simple way. If Shadow was twelve, how long should it take until she reaches the equivilant of thirteen?**

**Thanks for everything! Reviews are always welcome :)**


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter Six**

Forward sat in his usual seat at the table. They were about to have yet another meeting involving the Seekers. He sighed. They weren't getting anywhere with their constant paranoia. Forward did admit that some of the facts pointed towards something bad, but he also knew that nothing had happened yet and possibly never will.

"Is everyone here?" The mech in charge of this operation, Sentinel Prime, addressed them. Ultra Magnus had recovered from Shockwave's attack and had reclaimed his position as Magnus. Forward was glad; Sentinel would have made a bad Magnus.

"The others aren't here yet," another mech, this one white and blue, responded. The ones not here were the three bots who had been guarding the twin Seekers, along with anyone else in the stockade. They were part of the team, but they were also chosen to be the guards for the twins. They witnessed how the twins reacted to things and how they behaved, so it was up to them to report this information.

"Well they better hurry up. I want this meeting to start." The prime sat down anyway at the head of the circular table.

"Cool it, SP, they'll get here," a white mech near Sentinel assured him.

And get here they did, finally. In walked a green mech, an orange mech, and a mainly black and white femme.

"You're late," Sentinel glared at them as they took their seats.

"Sorry sir," the femme, Nowli, apologized.

"I was waitin' for Hound here to hurry it up," the orange mech, Ironhide, said indicating the green one. "He recharged too long this time."

"I was out late last orbital cycle trying to find the Seeker youngling," Hound excused himself.

"Yeah, and I had to take yer shift," the orange mech complained.

"Quiet so we can start," Sentinel interrupted. "You've already cost us enough time."

"It really wasn't much time," a red and white femme next to Forward mumbled. He smiled. Sentinel didn't notice, thankfully.

"Alright," said Prime began. "First off, Forward, tell me your latest failures and whereabouts of the youngling."

Forward ignored the insult and stated his only news. "I almost had her last time we cornered her, but she got away."

"How, exactly?"

"She flew, sir," he said a little sheepishly.

"And haven't I told you to watch for that? I mean really, she's a Seeker. What did you expect her to do?" Forward didn't reply. Instead, the Prime continued, this time directing his question at Hound. "And what have you found?"

"I haven't been able to locate her recently," Hound replied. Forward had an idea then.

"Excuse me, sir," Forward began hesitantly.

"Yes?" Sentinel said, looking a little annoyed.

"On my last encounter I got some information about her. When I mentioned her brothers to her and how they were still alive-"

"When did I say you could tell her that? It's supposed to be a secret. She's supposed to believe we took them in for experiments on Seekers." He was angry.

"Well, sir, it got a reaction from her. I learned she cares deeply for them."

"So?"

"Well, I was thinking that next time we go out for her, it could be me and Hound. He could make holographic versions of the twins and we could lead her into a trap with them." Sentinel appeared to be in thought of it.

"Alright, do what you must. But don't even think about letting the real twins out."

Forward nodded.

"You two," Sentinel turned to Ironhide and Nowli, who were seated next to each other. "Anything?"

"They don't talk much," Ironhide said. "When they were together last orbital cycle, they talked about their life in the stockade, but I couldn't hear them."

"I managed a conversation with them," Nowli said. "I told them about what happened to their family. How their creators were offlined and sister on the run."

"You told them that?" Sentinel raised his voice at her. She looked regretful. "What is this? Reveal everything to the enemy cycle? You were never advised to tell them anything about their family. It'll only make them angry, and that'll lead to them becoming Decepticons, that is if they aren't already."

"Come on SP," Jazz intervened. "You can't just assume they're Decepticons because they're Seekers."

"Was Starscream and his clones enough proof to you, Jazz?"

"Yeah, that _they_ were 'cons. But you can't just stick a 'con label on all Seekers."

"I will until I get proved otherwise."

"Sir," Forward spoke up. "We do have word of other Seekers living on Cybertron." The femme next to him gave him a look as if he shouldn't be telling the Prime that.

"What? How long have you known about this?"

"More than a stellar cycle. Sorry-"

"How many of you knew?" Sentinel looked at them all. "Jazz?" A nod. "Mirage?" A nod. "Hound, Ironhide, Nowli?" All nods. "Heth?" A nod from the femme next to Forward. Sentinel was angry again. "How come everyone knew but no one told me? I am in charge of this team."

"Because you would have acted like this," Heth answered. "They haven't done anything suspicious. It's just two Seekers living together. They may not even know about Starscream's clones, or be related to them in any way."

"They're still Seekers. They can be dangerous and you've just been letting them walk around Cybertron and haven't told me yet?" He was furious.

"They're still citizens," Heth argued. "They've done no wrong."

"They fly. No Autobot flys."

"Is that your best argument?" Forward tensed. Heth was getting rebelious again. She really needed to be more careful around Sentinel. Heth was a medic, and when she saw someone in pain or injured in any way, she would stop at nothing to heal them. But when she wasn't around the injured, she was like this. This was mostly because she felt the need to protect, as long as it was morally right.

"Well, it's just a fact."

"Just because they fly doesn't make them a 'con. What about the Jet twins? They fly."

"They were given the codes to fly. They weren't born with the ability. It's different."

"Alright, you know what? Fine. No Autobots fly. Guess what? Maybe they're neutrals. The last family of Seekers were and still are."

"What are you trying to say? There isn't any proof that the whole family is still neutral."

"I'm saying you're being to quick to judge."

"Actually, Sentinel Prime?" Nowli piped up. He was still furious at the whole lot of them, but he tried to lower his temper when he turned to her. "When I saw the twins they still had purple optics."

"It's true. Those flyin' bots are still neutral," Ironhide backed her up.

"Alright, but we're not discussing them," Sentinel changed the subject back to the secret the team kept from him. "Jazz, why didn't you tell me about the Seekers?"

"You would've been too quick to judge. You need to calm down and think about it more," Jazz instructed, keeping a calm face.

"What else is there to think?" Sentinel turned to Mirage. "Mirage, I want you to arrest the Seekers." Mirage looked like he was about to speak, but Sentinel cut him off. "I don't care about what you have to say. I want them under my supervision as soon as possible."

"You have no right to take them," Heth tried to tell him.

"Oh yes I do. I'm the only Prime on this team, so I'm in charge. Now do as I say and bring them to me."

"Sir, even with my invisibility, I can't go in alone," Mirage reminded him.

"Hound, go with Mirage," Sentinel ordered.

"Yes sir," Hound agreed somewhat reluctantly.

"Good. Now that we have that settled, does anyone have news on the clones?" He was talking about Starscreams clones. Last they'd heard, the two Seekers that were caught at the end of the war were brought back to the other Seeker clones. They knew for sure that there had been three new clones, and two were offline. They new they were still there, because every cargo ship that went near the crashed _Nemesis_ was attacked and raided.

"Nothing new from me," Hound reported.

"Same here," Forward added.

"Does anyone have something more to add?" Sentinel asked, clearly not happy with the lack of information.

"Yeah," Heth spoke up. "Leave the Seekers on Cybertron alone."

"No, we can't risk them doing something."

"They're on Cybertron, a planet full of Autobots. Do you really think they'd do anything that drastic?"

"I wouldn't put it past a Decepticon to attack."

"Then at least put them under surveillance without kidnapping them. Can't someone just keep an optic on them without them knowing?" Heth suggested.

"That would be better than taking them," Mirage agreed. "And it'd be easier to get information on them if they didn't know they were being watched."

There were murmurs of agreement from the others and Sentinel reluctantly agreed. "Fine. But since you suggested it, you've got to keep an optic on them."

"But I've got patients to take care of," Heth complained. "I don't have the time."

"Fine, Mirage, you watch over the Seekers."

"Yes sir." Mirage nodded.

"Well, if there isn't anything else to add, meeting dismissed."

"What about the twins?" Ironhide reminded him.

"Oh yes, thank you Ironhide," Sentinel thanked, all past anger seemingly gone. "Something must be done about them. We can't keep them locked up for the rest of their lives."

"Let them go then," Heth suggested.

"I can't do that. Besides, they don't have anything out there to return to even if we did let them go. At least they're fed here."

"All thanks to you. You're the one that offlined their creators and scared away their sister. She's something for them to go back to. She probably needs them anyway." Heth's protective instincts were kicking in. "You can't actually be thinking about offlining the twins."

"I can't offline them without a good reason." Sentinel seemed a little troubled by that.

"What reason did you have to offline their creators?" Forward could tell why Heth was so angry about all this. She was a medic and cared for bots' lives. Of course she would be mad about bots being offlined for no good reason.

"They were clones of Starscream's clones." Forward didn't agree with that reason.

"Maybe they came to Cybertron to start a new life and forget about the other Seekers. Those Seekers may have rescued the two clones we caught after the war, but have they shown any interest in rescuing Glyde and Cloud? No, they haven't."

"That's because they're afraid of what I'll do if I catch them, which I will." He was smirking now. Sentinel had a large ego.

Heth mumbled something but let it slide, resting her elbows on the table with her head in her servos. Forward could tell she was done arguing, which made him happy. He knew Sentinel wouldn't hold back in kicking her off the team if he needed to. She wasn't anything special except a medic. She was chosen by Sentinel to be the medic on the team in case any of them got hurt. He wanted this team to be top secret and didn't want to explain anything to other medics as to how they got the injuries. She didn't only work on the team though. The other members hardly ever got injured enough to have to go to her for repairs. When Nowli's grapple was sliced Heth had to fix it. That was the most recent injury.

"Alright, to summarize this meeting up," Sentinal began. "The twins have done nothing suspicious, Mirage will keep an optic on the seekers living on Cybertron, and Forward and Hound are now in charge of catching the youngling Shadow."

"Wait, sir," Nowli interrupted. "If Hound is taking my position as Forward's partner, than what will I be doing?"

"You can cover Hound's shifts as a guard. Just don't have anymore talks with the twins that involve anything top secret."

"Yes sir."

"Meeting dismissed."

They all rose to leave. Heth put her servo on Forward's shoulder to stop him. He looked back at her. "Is there something you want?"

"How could you?" He knew she was talking about the Seekers.

"I'm sorry. I had to tell him." He really was sorry. He just didn't like keeping secrets from his superiors and this one had gone on long enough.

"If you wanted them to be under watch, we could have done that ourselves." She had a point, but Forward had another.

"Yes, but now we can do that without having to worry about it clashing with our usual schedules." She frowned at him, but walked off anyway. She would head back down to where she was needed.

Forward made to catch up with Hound, who was talking with Mirage, when another femme stopped him. This one smiled at him. "Hey Nowli."

Nowli kept pace with him as they walked out of the room. "I guess we won't be working together for a while now, huh?"

He nodded. "I guess so. Sorry, but now you'll have to take over the boring job of guard duty."

She shrugged. "I've done it before. It's nothing I can't handle. I will admit though, it was much more exciting when we were chasing Shadow around. I guess Hound will be of more use to you than I was considering the fact that he's a tracker and all."

"Yeah, but don't let yourself down. Jazz did train you after all. You can still fight."

She held up a digit. "Correction. Jazz is train_ing_ me. I'm not a cyberninja yet, Forward. Speaking of which, I've got a schedule to keep with him. I'll see you later. Good luck with Hound."

She ran off to catch Jazz, who turned and cheerfully greeted her. Forward figured he'd better catch up to Hound and discuss a plan. Mirage had disappeared from sight, so Hound was already waiting for him.

"Are you ready for this?" Forward asked him when he caught up.

"I'll be fine. You have any leads?" Hound asked, already wanting to get a plan in motion.

"Not yet, but we'll find her eventually." She may have been out of his sight for long periods of time, but he always found her in the end before she could run again.

And he was sure he'd find her again.

* * *

><p><strong>There's some Autobots for you. I hope I didn't do too bad with them, I tried not to make them OOC. I had thought about using Red Alert as the medic, but I didn't know too much about her in Animated to use her, and she's different then G1 Red Alert. To me, she seems more like Armada's Red Alert, except the gender. So I decided to use and OC for that named Heth, which I found while looking over the names of the Greek letters such as Alpha, Beta... except heth is the name of the eighth letter of the proto-canaanite alphabet. In the Greek Alphabet, it's the letter used for Eta. It reminded me of health, so I used it. I also think I'll have to put Rachet in this story at some point. I haven't yet, and I'm pretty far with this, but I probably will.<strong>

**Okay! LucasVN- Alright thanks, I'll read it. Yeah, I knew one stellar cycle equals one year, but because transformers seem to age slower...never mind, I'm making this confusing. I'll just use stellar cycles for human years.**

**Thanks to anyone who's reading! If I can remember correctly, I had a lot of writer's blocks writing the next chapter, so I hope you like it!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter Seven**

"I'm bored," Shadow announced as she lounged on the couch. Dawn was sitting across from her on a chair reading a data-novel. Shadow had been with the Seeker clones for six orbital cycles now. It was oddly new to her; she had never been so relaxed since before her family was split up. Usually she was worrying on applying energon and staying alive while also hiding from Autobots. This was the first time in a while that she actually had nothing to do.

"What do you usually do?" Dawn asked her without looking up from the data-novel.

"Plot ways to kill the fragging Autobot who ruined my life." It was an honest answer.

"Good. It's always nice to have creative people on the team." Shadow wasn't surprised that she had approved.

"Hey, I've been meaning to ask you something that's been eating at my processor ever since I first met Slipstream." Shadow sat up straight from her previous slouched posture and waited for a response.

"And what would that be?" Dawn's optics moved to her but she barely shifted her head.

"Why do you look different than her? Sunstorm and Acid Storm look the same, but she looks different than you. Aren't you her clone?"

Dawn thought for a moment, giving Shadow her full attention. "Well, you know that Slipstream is Starscream's clone, yes?" Shadow nodded. "Starscream had been in his Earth form when he cloned himself, so naturally his clones would also be in their Earth form. They've never had a Cybertronium form, so it didn't really concern them at the time. When I was created and transported here, though, me and Acid Storm scanned the _real_ Seeker jet and look how a Seeker should. Sunstorm followed suit when he arrived here, but all the others still have Earth modes. I don't know about Jetstream and Streaker, however. I never met them."

Shadow thought that over. "What's Earth like?" She finally asked.

Dawn's optics widened, and she chuckled. "That's right, I forgot you don't know what we know. Earth is a planet full of organics. Stellar cycles ago, Megatron crashed there along with a group of Autobots. Starscream and other Decepticons soon found the planet, but for different reasons. Megatron was revived, Starscream was a traitor, and in the end the Autobots won."

"Yeah, I know what happens after that. Megatron and his remaining Decepticons are captured, blah blah blah, they kill Megatron because they're afraid of him, yadda yadda, and the Autobot team is now famous." Shadow rolled her optics, crossing her arms across her chassis.

"They didn't catch _all_ the Decepticons," Dawn revised with a smirk.

Shadow would've smirked as well, but it didn't matter if she couldn't see it anyway.

Dawn seemed to be thinking something similar. "Remove your mask."

"What? Why would I do that?" Shadow frowned.

"Why do you wear it? When was the last time you were actually in a battle that required it?"

"Hey, those Autobots can be persistent sometimes. I already lost an optic to them, I'm not losing my mouth as well." Shadow realized too late that she had revealed more than she had intended.

"I suspected as much," Dawn admitted, setting the data-novel down on the table between them. "How?"

Shadow sighed. She really didn't want to tell anyone what happened. She also wished that she could get it fixed, but she didn't trust an Autobot to help her, even if it was a medic. Before she could even think of how to begin, however, her sensors picked up an unwanted energy signature coming from outside the small home. "There's someone outside."

Dawn looked towards the door. Acid Storm was out with Sunstorm at the moment enjoying some leisure time, so it was just the two of them.

"Get out of sight. You'll blow our cover if they see you," Dawn commanded her, standing up. Shadow stood up as well.

Shadow looked around. She would rather attack the possible Autobot, but she knew that she couldn't risk it. She didn't want Dawn and Acid Storm to end the way her family had, especially when Dawn was expecting. The problem was, she couldn't find anywhere to conceal herself.

Dawn realized this problem. "Under the couch."

Shadow looked at her like she was insane. There was no way she could fit under there! Shadow studied the couch, but nothing gave any hidden secrets away. "How?"

Dawn took the few steps required to get there and knelt down, reaching under the couch. She must have done something, because as she retracted her servo, the couch split in two, each side raised at an incline to allow access to a hole hidden underneath.

Shadow needed no further instruction. She hovered above the hole, then gently put herself down inside. It wasn't too deep; just deep enough to allow a full grown Seeker room to stand. Shadow turned and felt the walls after the couch was returned to its innocent position. She found a panel on the wall, but decided to leave it alone. She didn't want anything to go wrong.

So far, she heard nothing come from above. No door opening, no tapping at a window, or even the sound of pedes walking across the flooring. Then Shadow remembered something that Slipstream had warned them of the last time she had contacted them.

_"Our spy has told me that the Autobots are aware of your presence now. They'll be keeping you under watch to make sure you don't do anything threatening. Be patient, it'll all come together soon. I only wish it could be sooner. Oh, and don't let them see Shadow. That's all for now, I'll contact you if - Ramjet, stop teasing Skywarp! - there's anything else worth reporting."_

So, that was why someone was staking out the house now. Shadow knew that Dawn had already come to that conclusion; she was a smart femme. The only problem now would be when Acid Storm came back. Hopefully Sunstorm wouldn't return with him.

Shadow couldn't help but admit that she was a little worried. If the Autobots suspected anything about the Seekers she now lived with, they could be taken in like her brothers were. That would leave her all alone again. Unless, she managed to find Slipstream, but she is in a whole different galaxy from what Shadow's heard.

She knew it wasn't the time to be complaining, but Shadow wasn't really looking forward to spending the rest of the orbital cycle at the bottom of a hole.

Breems past until something finally happened. Shadow was still concealed, but she heard the commotion. A door opened and someone yelled something, but Shadow couldn't tell what was being said. She did pick up Dawn's reply to the yells.

"Stop, please!" She pleaded, sounding distressed. "I don't know why you're here, but let him go!"

Shadow could only conclude that the Autobot - or possibly, Autobots - had got a hold of Acid Storm.

"He was caught mingling with a Decepticon!" An angry voice replied. "I knew you no good Seekers were working with them. It was too bad te other got away though."

"She didn't know!" A quieter voice, one she recognized as Acid Storm's, lied. "Leave her out of this."

"I'm not taking anymore chances. Why didn't you tell me before about these two? I could've gotten them long ago!" Shadow was confused at the last part. Who was he talking to?

"For the reasons Heth gave you," a new voice told the angry one. It was another Autobot, most likely.

"Well, she was wrong! I can't believe you bots had the idea of keeping this from me. Enough talk though, grab her!" The angry mech ordered. Shadow had a battle going on in her processor now. She wanted to get out and help Dawn, but she also knew there wasn't much she could do. She didn't know how many were up there, and she had never been through the training they had probably had.

Wait, she did know how many there were. She just hadn't been paying attention. Her sensors told her there was five unknown bots. One or two must have Acid Storm, then there was the angry leader, and two others. Shadow weighed the odds. She could at least help them escape. There was obviously no changing the leader's mind about how much of a Decepticon Dawn and Acid Storm were, so she didn't think any more harm could come from revealing herself.

In the end, all Shadow thought of when she made up her mind was 'Ah, to the pit with it. I want some action and I want some revenge!' Shadow pressed a promising green button on the panel and the couch above opened again. Shadow didn't hesitate to shoot out of it before it was even fully opened. She looked down at the scene in front of her. There was a large blue and orange mech that she recognized as Sentinel Prime. Behind him were two bots, both with lean figures, holding an injured Acid Storm. One of them was a femme. The other was white, black, and blue with a visor. The last two Autobots were mechs. One was an orange one, and the other white and blue.

"That's the youngling!" The femme pointed out.

Shadow looked beneath her. She was hovering above Dawn, who looked very displeased with her. She knew she should have stayed in the hole, but this opportunity was too good to miss.

"Seize them!" The big-chinned prime ordered. The two mechs that weren't busy with anything rushed forward. Dawn elevated herself, but she didn't look too well. She seemed to be having another dizzy spell. She tilted to her right and Shadow tried to support her.

"Dawn, we have to get out of here!" Shadow encouraged, moving to dodge a blast aimed her helm.

"You should have stayed down there," Dawn scolded her.

"They would have found my energy signature eventually. Come on, we need to go."

"Acid Storm..."

"If we don't leave now, we'll end up like him, or worse." Shadow wondered where Sunstorm was.

"I know, but I can't leave him. They ambushed him. Sunstorm took off already. He should have stayed. He could have helped."

"Think about who's life is important to you and how you don't want to lose it." Dawn spared a look at Shadow, and Shadow could tell she knew what she meant.

The white and blue mech got a good shot at Shadow's head, and she didn't manage to completely dogde it. Because of this failure on her part, on of her sensors had been destroyed. It gave her a processor ache, and she struggled to stay airborne. The odds were against them with an injured Acid Storm, a dizzy Dawn, and a youngling who couldn't hear anything besides an internal ringing. She desperately tore off her other sensor, and thankfully the ringing stopped. That also meant that she had the standard radar like everyone else now, but that was a minor effect to her at the moment.

She knew her best chance was close combat. Sentinel had a sword and shield, so he was a no. The two holding Acid Storm had no weapon visible, so they must be confident enough with their skills. Or they just can't access one, but Shadow left them alone anyway.

Dawn was firing back now, probably more focused than before. The orange mech had turned silver and all shots fired at him were reflected. That meant Shadow had only one mech left to fight. He was only using a standard blaster, but everyone has a trick hiding.

"Ah!" Shadow yelled when she took a direct hit to her chassis. She fell backwards, still hovering but clutching at her wound. Dawn took to covering her, but it wasn't going to well.

"Stop it!" The femme yelled. Acid Storm was struggling now, but still too injured to really do anything. Dawn was taking hits now, but she didn't stop. Shadow knew she wouldn't back down. Who knew what the Autobots would do if they caught her and found out she was expecting.

Suddenly, the window shattered, and in flew Sunstorm.

"Where in the pit have you been!" Shadow yelled at him.

"I'm so sorry," he started, his trademark grin in place as usual. "If I had known that excellent fighters such as yourselves would be taken down so easily, I would have come sooner."

"Get him!" The Prime ordered. The femme let go of Acid Storm, leaving him in the other's servos. She Jumped up and landed on Sunstorm, wrapping her arms around his neck from the back. At first he just clawed at the arms, but then he relaxed.

"Ouch!" The femme cried out, falling but still landing on her pedes. Shadow couldn't tell for sure exactly what had happened, but Sunstorm seemed pretty proud of himself.

"Don't just stand there, do something!" Sentinel barked at her.

"I can't touch him!" She told him, showing her apparently burnt arms. Dawn didn't seem surprised, but Shadow was.

"They don't call him Sunstorm for nothing," Dawn bragged, and Shadow could almost hear the smirk she was undoubtedly wearing.

Sunstorm fired his own nullrays at the Autobots. Shadow briefly wondered if Acid Storm had any abilities like that, but if he did, that mech probably wouldn't still have a hold on him. Unless he was saving it for something.

Dawn gasped, then fell to the floor.

"Dawn!" Acid Storm called out, putting up a fight with the Autobot despite his weak state.

Shadow rushed to her side as Sunstorm fought off the Autobots. "What happened?" She was almost afraid to ask.

"The spark," she gasped out, seemingly in pain. Shadow took an astrosecond to figure out what she meant.

"Now?" Why now of all times did it have to come?

"Yes. I have a protoform for it in subspace. I don't think I can...here...now." Dawn looked like she was in a lot of pain. Shadow should of known she would have been no help if she had come out from hiding. But this...maybe she could help with it.

"I have no idea how to do this!" Shadow was still injured, Acid Storm was maimed, Sunstorm was still holding off, and Dawn was carrying a new spark that needed to come out at that very moment. They really needed some kind of medic.

Shadow looked up at the Autobots. The femme was down and out, but didn't look injured. The Prime was still looking like he did when he first arrived here, the now silver mech was also unharmed, the mech holding Acid Storm had taken a blow from Sunstorm, but didn't seem too bad, and the other mech was still standing.

Sunstorm took a direct hit in the shoulder and was down, oddly enough. He was bent over on his knees, his servos keeping him up. He didn't look up as the blue and white mech walked over to pick him up. He let the mech drag him over to the Prime, who grabbed an arm.

"Well well well, looks like you're related to Starscream after all. We caught that Seeker too," the Prime boasted. Then he yelled, dropping the Seeker. The other mech also backed away. "Re-retreat!"

"Sir? Are you serious?" The once again orange mech, who was the only one without a scratch, asked.

"That's an order, and bring the green one!" Sentinel was now nursing his burnt servo, his sword and shield put away.

Sunstorm stood up, perfectly fine. Shadow realized that he had faked it to get near him. She mentally applauded him for it. Then he really started to glow, radiating more heat than before. The Autobots backed away, the orange mech holding the unconscious femme. The blue and white mech had decided to help the other mech drag Acid Storm out.

Shadow could feel the heat, and it was making her feel faint. It was making the Autobots leave though, which was good. Even though they still had Acid Storm. There wasn't anything they could do about that though. They might have made them draw back, but they were still at a disadvantage. That Prime really was stupid to retreat, but maybe the heat actually did hurt a lot like it seemed.

Once the Autobots and Acid Storm were gone, Sunstorm seemed to be back to his normal self and was coming to Dawn's side. She reached into her subspace and grabbed a protoform. "Sunstorm," she almost whispered, "help me."

Shadow decided to leave them alone for this. She walked away, servos going to her wound. It would need to be looked at, things like this needed more than just self repair. She didn't know any medics, and there would certainly be none that would help a Decepticon. Also, they needed to leave or risk being attacked again.

When the two Seekers were done doing whatever it is they had to do, Shadow came back over. Dawn was now sitting on the floor with her back against the wall and Sunstorm was standing near her. In her servos was a small baby blue sparkling. He had a white face and black helm, but everything else was blue or white. With a closer inspection, Shadow noticed a small red line on each of his wings.

"What's his designation?" Shadow asked. Surely Acid Storm and Dawn had talked about it at some point. There wasn't much else to do these cycles.

"Downpour," Dawn replied. "We agreed on it not too long ago. It suits him, though you may not realize it."

No, Shadow didn't realize it. Acid Storm, Dawn, and Downpour. Well, he was blue. A royal blue at that.

The sparkling started to click, and Dawn held it closer to her spark chamber. It was adorable, Shadow gave it that. It was so tiny though, and this wasn't a good time for a sparkling.

"What do we do now?" Shadow asked. "We have to go somewhere."

Dawn answered. "We go and meet up with our fellow Seekers."

* * *

><p><strong>So far, this is my longest chapter. I'm not sure how happy I am with how it turned out, and I hope to improve with action scenes. I think it'll be easier with one on one combat. And in case anyone is wondering, I didn't get Downpour's color scheme from Thundercracker. There's also no story behind his name, it just popped into my head while writing this chapter.<strong>

**Prowls-little-angel: Okay, I'm glad you like it! I'm glad this story isn't too confusing as well. No, the clone isn't Starscream. I think it's two chapters from now that you meet the new clone again, so you'll have to wait and see. He is an OC though, I couldn't find anymore Seekers. And it would be awesome if someone did that to Sentinel, though a human kicking a large piece of metal would probably hurt more than it would hurt him, sadly enough.**

**Not much else to say, so thanks for reads, favs, and reviews! I will always appreciate it! Onward, to the next chapter!...In two days!**


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter Eight**

Forward was in the Med Bay with Hound. The five that had left for the Seekers had returned with only one of the two or three they were supposed to get. That Seeker was taken to the stockade by Ironhide, not putting up much of a fight. Forward and Hound had still been searching for the youngling, only to find out from Jazz when he returned that she had been with the Seekers. Now all of them, save Ironhide, were in the Med Bay where Heth was looking after Sentinel.

"It's just a burn, Prime," she told him.

"Well do something about it!" He ordered. "Last time we had that Seeker, he couldn't do that!" From what Forward had overheard, the orange Seeker had some sort of heat ability that seemed to burn anything that touched him.

"Calm down, SP," Jazz suggested.

"I will not! We could have had all of them! And don't say it's my fault we don't. I just realized that we couldn't get past him in the state we were in. We might have been able to if Nowli hadn't decided to just faint on the spot like that."

The femme in question looked down in shame. She hadn't been very hurt at all, but had arrived unconscious. It didn't take her long to wake up though, and after that Heth had checked out her burns.

"And all Mirage did was take out the youngling. Big deal," Sentinel complained. Forward suspected he was just upset that Mirage had taken out the youngling and not him. So far, it seemed that Sentinel had been the least productive the entire time. Jazz and Mirage were the ones that took out the green seeker in an ambush.

"Well, from what I heard," Heth started, "he also helped with the captured Seeker, am I right? Now next time, please do more damage instead of _taking_ more damage, Prime."

Sentinel glared at her, but didn't say anything.

"We should go after them," Forward spoke up. "They're not going to stay there for long now that they've been discovered. We should get them while they're down."

"I'm ready when you are," Jazz agreed.

Sentinel thought about it, then decided. "Alright, Jazz, Mirage, Forward, and Hound, go and bring back at least one other Seeker. I want those Seekers brought here pronto!"

There was a chorus of "Yes sir!" and they were off again. Jazz still looked a little wounded, but seemed fine. He was leading the way there, which was pretty far out. The Seekers couldn't have been any closer without being spotted sooner, so it took them a few breems to get there. When they got there, they transformed and Forward looked at the small home. There were broken windows, probably from the fight earlier, and it looked run down. He almost felt bad for them, but then remembered that they now had proof that they were Decepticons.

They had discussed the plan on the way there, and now it was time for action. Mirage became invisible and snuck inside. Someone was bound to notice the door open, but Forward couldn't tell from his hiding place outside if he had been caught or not. Jazz crept closer to the now open door, waiting to follow in. Hound and Forward were taking positions outside and waiting for the signal.

They heard a shot, and all three on the outside rushed in. A mostly yellow femme Seeker was crouching on the ground, protectively holding something against her chassis. Two more Seekers were in the room: an orange one and a purple youngling. Forward recognized both of them. It was apparent that Mirage had fired on the orange seeker, and the Seeker had taken all of the blast. The closest Seeker to them was the femme, so Forward attacked her first. She seemed to try to defend herself, but didn't want to let go of whatever she was holding.

The orange Seeker was firing back at them now, and Forward had to dodge a blast aimed at him. Jazz had engaged the youngling in combat, which he was proving to be much more skilled at than her.

Hound was helping out Mirage, so that left Forward with the yellow seeker. He approached her, curious as to why she wasn't fighting back.

"Stay back!" She commanded him when he was within reaching distance. She was glaring at him, trying her best to hide the object of his curiosity from him. Then he heard it click. She had a sparkling.

"Jazz, what shall I do?" Forward asked the appointed squad leader. "She has a sparkling with her."

He didn't reply, knocking the youngling over her helm and she crashed to the floor, unmoving. The orange Seeker shot at Jazz, causing him to back away from the youngling.

"Sunstorm!" The yellow femme cried out. Sunstorm grabbed the youngling, then flew over the femme. She held up the sparkling, and he took it as well, just before Hound shot her into stasis. The Seeker, still holding the younger ones, flew out, leaving the femme behind.

"Well, now we have another Seeker to add to the collection," Forward commented, looking down at the femme.

"Let's take her back. I have a feeling the other Seekers won't be coming back here," Hound told them. Forward nodded, picking up the Seeker in his arms and carrying her out of the home. And that's what he did the whole way back. None of them were a vehicle large enough to carry her back, so he ended up speed walking back. Only Jazz had stayed with him, the others going on ahead.

"This feels wrong," Forward told the ninjabot as they walked back.

"I know what'cha mean. They might be 'cons, but we just split a sparkling from its carrier." Jazz did look remorseful, but it was their mission to do so.

"How many Seekers do you think there are?" He changed the subject, trying to feel less guilty about it. Keyword: trying.

"You mean in the universe or in league with Starscream's clones? That is, if those Seekers are still up to no good. We haven't heard or seen them since the day we noticed they were alive. That was stellar cycles ago, and the only proof we have of them still workin' at it is Sunstorm."

"Yeah, I'm sure he's working with them. But what are they after? They haven't done anything yet. Maybe they _were_ just trying to raise a family here on Cybertron."

"Ya never know, they could be plannin' somethin'. Some things just take time to develop."

Forward nodded. The rest of the walk was silent, and thankfully the Seeker stayed in stasis the whole way back. When they got there, they found an unusually pleased Sentinel Prime giving them the thumbs up for capturing another Decepticon. Forward and Jazz kept quiet about the sparkling, but did mention the youngling and Sunstorm getting away.

Forward took the Seeker to the stockade. Nowli went with him, having to go there anyway to switch with Ironhide. The stockade now had two new members. Forward was told to keep the femme Seeker away from the green one, just as the twins were split up. He did so, putting her on one end next to Cloud. Out of the corner of his optic, he saw the amazement on Cloud's face when he carried her past him. He remembered what Jazz had told him. During the first encounter earlier, the two Seekers had tried to help each other. Him and Jazz had come to an agreement that the green Seeker may be the other creator for the sparkling. It could also have been Sunstorm, though.

Before leaving the stockade, Forward stopped by the green Seeker's cell. Apparently, after Heth was done taking care of the Autobots' wounds, she had mended some of his as well. The Seeker was awake at this point, and took little notice of Forward standing outside of his cell. Forward had already decided what he was going to tell the Seeker, but he had to do so quietly.

"What is your name?" Forward asked the Seeker.

"Acid Storm."

He was surprised to have gotten an answer so quickly, but didn't question it. "Was it your sparkling?" He whispered this, watching as Acid Storm looked at him in shock.

"Sparkling? It came?" He sounded very depressed.

"Yes. The yellow Seeker has been captured as well, but the sparkling is with another Seeker. I thought since you were a creator that you should know the whereabouts of your creations. I'm sorry for splitting up your family." Forward made to leave, but Acid Storm said something first.

"Do you know its name?"

"No, sorry. I'll let you know if we find out from the femme." He still felt bad about it, but he knew Sentinel would freak out if he found out Forward was giving away information to the enemy. It's just, if Forward showed compassion to the enemy, then maybe they wouldn't be an enemy.

When Acid Storm didn't say anything else, Forward walked away. He caught Nowli staring at him as he left. Ironhide was already gone, having left the moment Nowli arrived.

"What was that about?" She asked him.

"Nothing, you don't know about it." It was true, Jazz and Forward had told absolutely nobody about the sparkling. They didn't know about Mirage and Hound, but they suspected it'd be kept a secret.

"Then let me know about it," she demanded.

"Please, I don't want to talk about it."

Heth entered then, probably to look over the yellow Seeker. "Which one is she in?" Heth asked, confirming Forward's assumptions.

"That one." He pointed a digit at the cell she was laying in, still unconscious.

"Thank you, Forward." She walked off, entering a code to open the cell. The energy field that acted as a wall disappeared, allowing her entrance. "I'll do some, but just enough to let her self repair system take over. I would do more, but it's the Prime's orders."

"We understand," Nowli assured her. She gave Forward a look, and he decided to steer the conversation into a different direction.

"I heard you fainted," Forward reminded her.

She looked away sheepishly. "I didn't mean to. I don't know what came over me. I was just about to attack the Seeker again when it all went black. Heth didn't find anything wrong with me, though."

"Don't worry, I'm sure it won't happen again," Forward reassured her.

She smiled at him. "Thanks."

"Um, excuse me," a different voice cut in. Forward turned around to look at Cloud, who was staring at them with interest.

"Yes?" Forward answered, allowing him permission to continue.

"Who were those Seekers that you brought in?"

Forward studied the pale green and white seeker. "You don't know them?"

He shook his head. "I've never met another Seeker besides my creators and my siblings. Until now. What did they do?"

"They were Decepticon's." Nowli answered this time.

"The same way _we_ are?" He was referring to him and his brother.

"They have red optics. You have purple. So you could say that they're more of a Decepticon than you are." Forward thought over what she said. It could be possible that their optics were only red because they were a clone of a Decepticon.

"So are you going to kill them?" Cloud continued.

"Not unless we have proof they've done something that deserves death."

"What did my creators do?"

Nowli paused on that one, unsure how to answer. Forward answered for her. "That was a mistake we won't make twice. We are sorry about that."

"If you were sorry, you'd let us go."

"It's not up to us, but our commander. And if you can think of a way to let him let you go, then good for you. He's a mech that only listens to his own ego though," Nowli warned him.

"That sucks." Cloud stood up and lay down on his berth. He had been sitting on the floor with his back to the wall before he moved.

"Once again, we're sorry," Forward apologized.

Cloud didn't say anything, but Forward knew he would probably have just repeated what he had said before. "I don't know what else you want me to say," Cloud finally said.

"What do you mean?" Forward guessed there was something else to what Cloud was saying.

Cloud sat up, looking at him with his purple optics. "What more do you want from me and Glyde? What can we do to earn your trust? How can we prove ourselves to be neutral?"

"I honestly don't know anymore." Forward was tired. He just wanted to go an get a nice recharge.

Nowli seemed to sense this. "You've done your job, Forward, you can leave now."

He nodded, exiting the stockade with a sigh. He asked himself what Sentinel wanted from the twins all of the time, but never got a good answer when he asked him in person. Forward mused that is was a good thing Sentinel wasn't Magnus.

* * *

><p><strong>I don't really like how I cut it off at the ending. It just doesn't seem like the chapter should be finished, but there wasn't much else to say. If anyone reading this likes orchestra music, or really anything without lyrics, then I recommend the soundtrack to the Transformer movies. The soundtracks are amazing! I like to listen to them when I write chapters, and they give me inspiration sometimes to keep on writing.<strong>

**Prowls-little-angel: Again, I'm glad you liked it! If you have thoughts about Downpour, don't say them in the reviews. If it's true, I don't want to give anything away. When the time comes, and I'll let you know when that is, you can tell me if you were right or not. And if you're not human and don't mind kicking a giant, thick piece of metal, then go right on ahead! I certainly won't stop you, Sentinel is an aft most of the time.**

**Thanks for reads and reviews!**


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter Nine**

Slipstream drummed her digits on the armrest on her chair. She was staring into the red optics of her spy on Cybertron through the screen. "What is it?" Slipstream wasn't in the best of moods at the moment.

"Dawn and Acid Storm have been captured by the Autobots."

Slipstream frowned, upset further by the news. This wouldn't do, she needed them out of the Autobot's servos. "What about Sunstorm and Shadow?"

"They escaped from what I can tell. This is bad if Dawn is still carrying."

Slipstream had almost forgotten that factor. "Is she?"

The spy shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe Sunstorm would be a better bot to ask."

Slipstream hissed. "Why didn't you stop them from taking them?" She was glaring at her now.

"I tried my best!" She protested. "There wasn't much I could do without exposing myself to the Autobots! I think what I did was the best I could do. There isn't anything I could have done that would have helped in any way."

The seeker didn't let it pass, but didn't push the subject any further. Slipstream had been told by Thrust that she had an anger problem. Shortly afterwards, Dirge found him with a broken wing. At least the new Seeker clone seemed to have some sort of medical knowledge. How he got that, Slipstream would never be able to figure out.

He still didn't have a name. Slipstream and everyone else just called him That Jet Over There, or Jet for short. Jet was used more frequently. He still complained about not having a proper designation, but unless Dirge thinks of one fast, Jet is going to stick and become his actual name.

"Continue your work. I expect better news next time," Slipstream commanded the spy, letting her disappointment show.

"What shall I do about Dawn and Acid Storm?"

"The same we've done with the twins. Leave them alone unless threatened. I don't believe the Autobots would kill them if they haven't done anything."

"They caught Acid Storm and Dawn with Sunstorm. I don't think they'll release them because they're innocent."

"Yes. Still, be cautious." She ended the transmission without the reply that would have been given.

The situation seemed worse now than it ever was before. Now they had four Seekers in the stockade, two offline, and two hiding on Cybertron. Surely, the Autobots would try and find them. She was still surprised they hadn't done anything about the Seekers at the _Nemesis _with her. They had been there for stellar cycles, and yet the Autobots had done nothing. Maybe they didn't think of them as a threat. That's a mistake they'll soon regret.

Even so, she had to contact Sunstorm to find out about his condition.

"Why if it isn't my marvellous sister," Sunstorm greeted her, grin and all.

"What is your condition?" Slipstream wasn't in the mood for an order of the Sunstorm special.

"I have Shadow and Downpour with me. We don't have a place to stay right now because the courageous Autobots found us out."

"Downpour?" That could only be one bot.

"Dawn and Acid Storm's adorable sparkling. It's a shame though, because, after putting up a magnificent fight, the two were captured."

So the sparkling wasn't with the Autobots, but it would need a lot of care. There was only one thing left that Slipstream could do. "Stay away from the Autobots for as long as possible. I need you two to take the stolen cargo ship back here, if you still have it. The sparkling will never survive like that. At least here we have energon. Hopefully it'll be enough, though."

He made a slight bow with his helm. "Yes of course, how could I lose it? I would never want to anger you or the others, oh gracious Slipstream."

"Then take it back here as soon as you can. We'll be waiting." It would take some time, but eventually they'd reach their destination.

"Of course, I'll get right on it. And Acid Storm and Dawn?"

"Will stay where they are. If we want the Autobots to become less suspicious of us, then we need to keep quiet." However, she was reluctant to leave the two on Cybertron. The time would come when they would be rescued however, and Downpour could be reunited with his creators.

"A brilliant strategy, if I may."

"Get going. The sooner you arrive, the better. Good-bye, Sunstorm." The picture faded and she stood up. She would have to tell her comrades the news and deal with their reaction. With a sigh, she left the room and went to find the others.

She found them in what had become the equivalent of a rec room. They were all relaxing, not complaining or fighting with one another for once. Slipstream was at least a little bit surprised to see them all getting along. They were also talking about something, and Slipstream was curious to know what it was. She concealed herself outside of the doorway, listening in on their conversation.

"Maybe she's his treacherous side," Skywarp suggested. "He was her leader, and she hated him and left him at the mercy of Megatron along with the others. She never did like Starscream."

So that's what they were talking about. It amused her to listen in on their suggestions. She still had never told them what aspect she represented of Starscream.

"She's Starscream's stupid side," Ramjet voiced his opinion.

"True, she is smart," Thrust agreed.

"What about a critical side," Dirge wondered. "She never seems happy with anything."

"So his happy side?" Ramjet questioned.

"What if she's just a female version of Starscream?" Thrust put out. "Though, I can't really say this if I've never even met Starscream."

"Possible, the way she treated him was similar to Starscream's way of treating Megatron," Thundercracker compared. "Though I understand why anyone would treat such an inferior life form the way they did."

"Are you talking about Megatron or Starscream?" Skywarp asked.

"Both, obviously." Slipstream could almost hear the smirk in his voice.

There was a sound of metal on metal, as if someone had snapped. "I've got it!" Dirge claimed. "I know exactly what side of Starscream she is! It's a word I learned when I was hanging around Earth. She his bitchy side!"

"What does that mean?" Skywarp wondered.

Slipstream sighed, moving to enter the populated room. "Are you bots finished?"

"Almost," Thundercracker replied.

"Well, you are now. I've got important information for all of you." She waited to see if any of them had anything to say.

"Are we going into battle?" Thrust asked. "We're ready to fight and destroy the Autobots! We're better than them."

"Yes, those Autobots are weak and will be easy to beat as long as I'm their enemy," Thundercracker boasted.

"No, we're not fighting," Slipstream corrected them. Thrust looked disappointed, as did some of the others. "I was going to tell you that Sunstorm and the youngling Shadow are coming here to join us. They also have Dawn and Acid Storm's sparkling with them." She knew what question was coming.

"What about Dawn and Acid Storm?" Skywarp worried.

"They've been taken prisoner by the Autobots." The anger that she had known would come had arrived.

"Those pathetic Autobots deserve to be destroyed," Thundercracker decided.

"Why can't Sunstorm rescue them?" Jet asked.

Slipstream explained her reasoning to the newest recruit. She wasn't a big fan of Jet. It hadn't taken her and the others long to realize was his personality was going to be. Jet, unfortunately, was the side of Dirge that was never happy with anything. In other words, he complained. A lot.

"That sucks."

"At least we'll have more company around here," Thrust pointed out.

"Yeah, but we also have to deal with a sparkling," Jet continued. "I don't want to deal with something that can't even fend for itself."

"Yeah, because you'd be very good at fending for yourself if you were alone," Ramjet teased.

"I would. I don't need any one of you."

"Maybe he would. Dirge did," Thrust pointed out. "And maybe Skyliner's still online. You never know."

"Of course he's still online, he is my clone after all," Thundercracker assumed.

"Yes, because you're so grand and powerful," Ramjet said to Thundercracker.

"I am! You worthless clones aren't even half as good as me. I don't understand why Slipstream decided _she_ should be in command when it is obvious that I would make a better leader than her."

"I would follow you," Ramjet promised.

"You'd be a horrible leader, Thundercracker," Dirge countered.

"You're just jealous of my superiority, Dirge." Thundercracker was standing over where Dirge was siting on the floor.

Dirge got to his pedes. "Why would I be jealous of you? There's nothing grand about you."

"Everything about me is better than you. Better than all of you!" Thundercracker threw his servos into the air to prove his point. Well, not literally, because there isn't any air in the first place. The idea and point is still there though.

Slipstream was getting a processor ache. "Alright, knock it off you idiotic Seekers! Just shut up and do something useful."

It was quiet for a moment, than Dirge smirked. "See, I told you she's a bitch."

Slipstream went over and smacked him before giving up and returning to the control room. She knew it would be a while until she could ever move forth with her plan. They couldn't even think about attacking the Autobots if they had a sparkling running around. They would have to wait for him to mature enough. By then, the twins would be full mechs and the youngling would still be just a little younger than the twins.

It would all be worth it in the end, though.

* * *

><p><strong>Short chapter is short. Sorry it was so uneventful. Ever since around chapter two I've been wanting to do this chapter. I still want to do other parts, but they'll come later. Random fact for writers: the difference between may and might is that may leans more toward yes and might leans more toward no. The more you know! I have my sources, but I don't think I'm allowed to say it on here. Also, I've noticed people put disclaimers on their stories on here, and so far I've forgotten. Then again, it is a fanfiction website, so obviously I don't own Transformers. I do own my OCs, except the names. Though I don't steal names on purpose, I know for a fact that other people have used some of these names.<strong>

**Prowls-little-angel: That's just fine, you can PM me anytime. And I would love to help, but sadly I'm only human. *sigh* Maybe I could get Heth to help you, she'd do it.**

**Thanks for reads and reviews!**


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter Ten**

Shadow followed Sunstorm to wherever it was they were going. She was carrying the recharging Downpour while Sunstorm kept the lead. Downpour really was adorable. She knew now wasn't a good time for a sparkling, but that was just the way it was. It broke her spark to remember that Downpour may never see his creators. If the Autobots had offlined her creators, what was to stop them from doing the same to Dawn and Acid Storm?

No, she couldn't think like that. Her brothers were still online, after all. Well, that was what Forward had told her. Then again, the Autobots had caught Dawn and Acid Storm working with Sunstorm, who was a Decepticon. They were more guilty than Cloud and Glyde were. They may even have it worse than her creators.

Downpour stirred in his recharge. Shadow smiled, and just this once, retracted her battle mask. She adored the sparkling, and she wanted the others to know it. She hoped his life would be better than hers, but it hadn't started out that good.

"We're almost there," Sunstorm warned her. She nodded, even though he couldn't see her. She held Downpour closer, protectively. She vowed right there to help make his life as easy and as normal as she could. She knew that wouldn't be easy to do. Sunstorm had told her that they were going to return to the other Seekers. It wouldn't be returning to her, but to Sunstorm it would.

"Does anyone know _how_ to take care of a sparkling?" Shadow asked him. It had been bothering her ever since Dawn was captured. Actually, it had been bothering her ever since she woke up from stasis and found out that Dawn was gone.

"Of course someone does," Sunstorm promised her. "The others are smart enough to know that. Even I picked up some stuff from your creators."

She looked up from the sparkling to stare at the back of Sunstorm's helm. "You knew my creators personally?" She knew that he would know them, but how close they were was still a mystery to her.

"Why yes, I did in fact know them. I visited them often to see how they were doing, but I needn't worry. They were wonderful when it came to raising you and your brothers."

"I never saw you when you visited." She was sure she would have remembered seeing another Seeker when she only lived around ground-bots.

"I made sure to keep my existence from you and your brothers a secret. You were supposed to live a normal life up until a certain point, but the clever Autobots picked up on our plan early on and stopped part of it. I can't say they knew all of our plan, but they did figure out about Jetstream and Streaker easily."

She already liked Sunstorm, and even had a small bit of admiration for him. At first she had found him and the others to be a little annoying, but now she liked to be around them. They were the only family she had until her brothers were rescued or let out, but it was more likely the former would happen.

"Do you think Downpour will remember who his true creators are?" Shadow asked after a moment of silence passed between them.

"It is very unfortunate that Downpour never even got to meet Acid Storm. As for if he remembers his other creator, your guess is as good as mine, maybe even better as you are clever little Seeker."

Being called a Seeker made Shadow feel weird. She didn't know why, but she felt like the term seeker didn't apply to her as well as it did to the others. Maybe it was because she looked different. She was starting to hate her look. She told herself that when she became a full grown Seeker, she would revert back to the original model for a Seeker. She knew that she only looked different because her creators had wanted to try and protect her from the Autobots, but she was tired of hiding now. She wanted the Autobots to know full well that she was as much a Seeker as the others. The only thing she wanted to keep the same was her helm. She liked the way it covered her left optic.

"We're almost there," Sunstorm informed her after a couple more breems of walking. It would have been faster to fly there, but with the sparkling being, well, a sparkling, they couldn't do that. It would also be easier for anyone looking for them to spot them in the sky.

"Good, I'm getting tired," Shadow admitted. It was true, she was in need of a recharge. She wanted to wait until she was sure Downpour would be alright before she fell into one though.

She thought about how her life was going to be different after this orbital cycle. She was going to leave Cybertron for the first time. She wasn't sure how long it would take for her to get to wherever it was they were going, but this could very well be the climax of her life. She knew the point of their journey, but she didn't know how far away the destination was.

Another thought scared her. What if it turned out to be a long journey that leaves them in need of energon? Downpour might not survive if he doesn't get enough energon and other needs. No, there wasn't any might about it. He _won't_ survive without the accepted amount of energon for a sparkling. And call her crazy, but Shadow was sure there was a special kind of energon just for sparklings that they would need.

Shadow took note of her surroundings. They were maneuvering through one of the abandoned underground tunnels. The ship, which she had realized they were headed to, must be well hidden. Apparently, no Autobots had discovered it yet. That was a good thing if it was their only way off of the planet.

Eventually, the entered an old hangar, one that was probably used long ago but for some reason had failed to be remembered. A small ship lay in it. It looked old, unused, broken. Well, that was probably what happened when you leave a ship alone underground for stellar cycles on end. Maybe not Stellar cycles, but at least one. She wasn't sure exactly how long Dawn and Acid Storm had been here, but Sunstorm hadn't left once they were here. The ship had stayed there for a long time, but the exact time wasn't known to her.

Sunstorm opened the door and they entered the forgotten cargo ship. It was dark inside until Sunstorm proceeded to turn the lights on. They flickered for a moment, having been off for a long time. The orange Seeker showed her the equivalent of a personal room on a cargo ship for her and the sparkling to share. It wasn't a big ship, and she was happy to be with Downpour. It unnerved her to think of him alone in his own room.

That's when she remembered her earlier thoughts on the sparkling. "Sunstorm?" She called out to the retreating Seeker, who was headed for the control room to make sure the ship was ready for take off.

"Is there something you need?" He turned back to her, flashing his denta.

"Two things," she had just thought of another question. "First, how are we going to get out of here with a roof, and also not be spotted by the Autobots?" She waited for an answer before moving on to the other question.

"Brilliant observation, Shadow. The ground above us is fake and will move out of the way when it is time. Acid Storm, a genius with technology, installed a cloaking device that will cloak our signatures as well. No one will spot us."

"Good. Second, what about energon?" She was pleased with the first answer, and hoped to get a good answer for the second one as well.

"This time it was the Autobots who were clever enough to devise such a marvellous plan on how to tackle that one. All cargo ships have a built in solar energy converter and many cubes just waiting to be filled. When flying near a star, the converter will take enough energy to fill the cubes at whatever setting you choose, but it doesn't take enough to damage the star in any way."

"So, the sparkling?"

"Once again, your clever processor has thought of everything. He will get just the right kind of energon. You needn't worry about anything. Soon enough, we will be with the other Seekers and continue with our plan. The sooner we get there, the sooner your brothers, Dawn, and Acid Storm will be freed." She liked the sound of that.

Having nothing else to ask, she entered her makeshift room. There was one berth that she'd share with Downpour, but that was alright with her. They were both small enough to fit on it comfortably.

She continued to cradle Downpour in her arms, sitting down on the berth. There was nothing else in the room. This was most likely just a place for the bots running the ship to recharge, unless they actually had passengers with them. Really, it didn't matter what the room had previously been used for, as it was now functioning as Downpour's and Shadow's shared room.

The trip was shorter than expected. Sure, it did take many orbital cycles to get there, but once they found a working space bridge, they entered the coordinates and were off to the crashed site of the _Nemesis. _Apparently the Autobots that worked the space bridge were all drinking high grade at the time and didn't check to see who was on board the cargo ship. Instead, they just figured it was the usual Autobots piloting it, and let them through once they were given the destination. After going through the space bridge, the cloaking remained off. There wasn't much point to it; not many Autobots travelled near this area. Before she knew it, Shadow found herself and her two comrades landing on a small moon orbiting a large planet. The planet seemed to be larger than Cybertron, but it wasn't important to her, so she ignored it most of the time.

"Allow me to introduce you to everyone," Sunstorm suggested as they walked off, Shadow carrying the rather excited Downpour. He was chirping happily for some reason, though no one could figure out why. They whole trip he had been depressed about being so far from his creators. Shadow mused that there was probably some way he could sense who his creators were, if he had barely even seen Dawn.

The_ Nemesis_ was much larger than the cargo ship, but still a complete wreck. Before they entered through a whole in the ship, however, a purple and black seeker appeared out of nowhere in front of them.

"What was that?" Shadow asked, completely unaware that she might hurt the Seekers feelings by her rude tone.

The Seeker looked down. "I didn't mean to startle you. I'm Skywarp." He had the same voice as Sunstorm, leading Shadow to believe he was also a clone of Starscream. Though, he did sound a little bit different.

"What a pleasure it is to see you again, Skywarp," Sunstorm greeted. Another Seeker walked out, this one all different shades of blue. "And you as well, Thundercracker."

Thundercracker looked at Shadow with a disgusted frown. "I have to team myself up with not only you, but a mere youngling and sparkling? I deserve much better than this."

So far Shadow didn't like Thundercracker. "Hey, I've done a lot to get here!" Actually, she hadn't done much, but she didn't let him know that. All she had really done was avoid Autobots for who knows how long and help with the small battle at the house they had just left.

Skywarp disappeared again, leaving behind a short cracking sound. Only a moment later, he returned the same way Thundercracker had, with him a bunch of other Seekers.

The only femme walked forward, and Shadow recognized her as Slipstream. "You're much smaller in person," she commented.

Shadow frowned under her battle mask. None of the others so far seemed as nice as Sunstorm, Dawn, and Acid Storm had been.

"Still. Welcome to the team, Shadow. And this would be my clones sparkling." She eyed the tiny blue Seeker.

"Downpour," Shadow stated. So this was the one who cloned herself to create Jetstream and Dawn. She did remind her of Dawn somewhat, but nothing like Jetstream.

"He's such an ugly little thing," Ramjet said with disgust.

Shadow, not realizing the effects of cloning, shot him a glare that he couldn't see. "Why you! How could you say that?"

"Calm down, he was lying," Slipstream informed her. "Has Sunstorm not told you about what cloning does to the clones?" A shake of her cranial unit and Slipstream sighed. "Each clone represents one aspect of the original. Skywarp, that one, is a coward. Thundercracker, him, is an egomaniac, Ramjet, the one who just lied to you, is a liar, and Sunstorm is a suck-up. Oh yes, and Dirge, the other blue one, is greedy. We are Starscream's clones."

"I am not Starscream's clone," Ramjet concurred.

"What about the others?" Shadow asked, eyeing the remaining two Seekers.

"Thrust, the red one, I haven't quite figured out yet. He's Ramjet's clone, and I'm guessing he's an agressive side to Ramjet. Jet, the last one, is Dirge's clone, and represents Dirge's need to have everything perfect. In other words, nothing's good enough in his optics."

"What about you?"

She smirked. "That's better left unsaid."

Shadow wasn't satisfied, but she didn't press the matter any further. She instead thought about the personalities that had been introduced to her. So far, she didn't think she would like Thundercracker, Dirge, or Jet. Maybe not Ramjet either. She briefly wondered how hard it would be to lie about everything you say, but maybe it just came naturally to him.

"Who's clone was Streaker?" She asked.

"Mine," Skywarp answered her. Shadow mulled that over. If Skywarp was a coward and clones acted somewhat like their original, than that would explain why Streaker was startled easily. Well, Shadow was glad it was Skywarp's clone and not the others', because so far she like him more.

"Who was the third clone the Autobots mentioned being here at the beginning?" Shadow already knew that one was Slipstream and one was Skywarp.

"Thundercracker," Slipstream answered. Shadow looked again at him, then remembered when Sunstorm told her the story about Starscream's clones and how they all came to be. She remembered now that he had mentioned Slipstream, Skywarp, and Thundercracker being the three that rescued Ramjet and Sunstorm from the stockade.

"Why didn't you free Megatron?" Shadow asked, continuing her interrogation.

"Why would we need him?" Thundercracker asked. "He's useless as long as I'm on the team."

Slipstream appeared to have ignored him when she answered. "I honestly don't care much for Megatron. Besides, he was already offline by the time we got there." Shadow also then remembered when Sunstorm had told her _that_.

"What about the other Decepticons? What happened to them?"

"I think Lugnut went on a rage after he found out that Megatron had been offlined and somehow broke out of the stockade, where the Autobots were forced to either offline him or put his personality component in the detention center. I'm not sure which happened. As for Blitzwing and Shockwave, I have no idea. Many Autobots were demanding Shockwave be offlined for what he did to the Autobots, but I haven't the faintest idea if that ever happened."

Shadow turned to look at the planet they orbited. "What's that?"

"Earth, a planet filled with organics. It's a dreadful planet, one that I wish to never return to. I already torture myself with its image every time I look at the thing." She gave it a disgusted look, then returned to Shadow, this time looking at the cheerful sparkling she was cradling. "May I see him?"

Shadow complied, handing over Downpour to Slipstream. She was sure she could trust the Seeker to treat it well. After all, it was her clone's sparkling.

Slipstream held him in her servos looking down at him with a blank expression. He leaned into her the same way he did to Sunstorm. Shadow guessed that maybe it was because he sensed a part of his creators in their sparks. He had never acted that way to Shadow. She guessed that because of this, the two of them would be the primary caretakers of Downpour, that is if they had the spark for it. Sunstorm seemed happy enough to take care of him, but she barely knew Slipstream.

"Let me explain the rules around here," Slipstream began, looking down at Shadow, still cradling Downpour. "Each Seeker shares a room with another. It we had the full_ Nemesis_, then this wouldn't be a problem. However, given the circumstances, it's all we can do. There is only one berth in the each room, so you can take turns recharging however you choose. You and I can share one. Sunstorm, we have only one more free room. You can take that one with Downpour.

"Second, try your best not to fight with the others, though that gets very hard at times." Her optics moved to stare at Thundercracker and Dirge, but she didn't say anything to them or about them. "You will also get a ration of energon every orbital cycle, but now that we have our cargo ship back we can use it to make energon instead of stealing it. This is a privilege we haven't had in a long time."

"This doesn't seem like a very good place to raise a sparkling," Shadow commented. She expected someone to get mad at her, but they all stayed quiet.

Except for Ramjet. "It's the perfect place to raise a sparkling."

He went ignored. "No, it isn't a good place. That was the whole point in having him live on Cybertron with a family, but that didn't work out as planned."

Shadow understood, and after a few more exchanges, she was led inside and given a small tour by Sunstorm. She tried to talk to the others, trying to figure them out. Yes, it was easy for her to figure them out. Skywarp didn't trust her, hiding whenever he saw her and seemed determined to keep doing that until he knew her more. Thundercracker didn't care to even acknowledge her, and Jet just complained about her taking up necessary space. Ramjet, who she wasn't as used to as the others were, needed a decoder in her opinion. After everything he said, she had to play it back to herself and figure out the true meaning behind his words. She figured she'd get better at it, but it would definitely take time. Dirge acted like a combination of Thundercracker and Jet, which didn't make matters any better for her. It was apparent that Slipstream had decided to take charge, and rule number two wasn't even attempted to be followed. Someone was always at odds with another, whether it was verbally, silently, or physically.

In the end, Shadow had wandered back outside of the destroyed remains and onto the moon. She stared at the planet before her for a long time, thinking forward to the future. She hoped to see and talk to her brothers again in a positive way, but she didn't think that being in a different galaxy than them helped much. It was depressing as she thought of her past, how wonderful and horrible it was at the same time. She had ignored the Autobots that looked down on her family, on her kind. That made life easier, but the Autobots were still there. They fuelled her hatred towards them, the words they said. When Sentinel Prime and a few other Autobots showed up and demanded the twins for experiments, Shadow didn't know what to think. She immediately hated the big-chinned Autobot, but still believed that it was indeed for experiments that they were being taken away. She really had believed that she would see them within the stellar cycle.

What a fool she had been.

And then her creators were taken as well. She had already come to the conclusion that her brothers were offlined, and depression claimed her when she realized that they would be as well. The only reason she hadn't been taken as well was because her sire had hidden her very well within the home they lived in. The hiding place was similar to the one that Dawn had put her in, but at the time she hadn't known why she was hiding. After a few megacycles of staying put, she grew afraid and exited the hiding place herself, finding no one around she knew. No one at all. She was completely alone, but she didn't like the self-pity she was giving herself. She eventually grew out of it, strengthened by her need for revenge.

And revenge she was going to get.

* * *

><p><strong>Ten! Whew, and my new longest. Just a fact in case anyone's curious, in an episode of G1, Cybertron was brought into Earth's orbit by the Decepticons and it was smaller than Earth, much smaller. So that's where I got that scale from. Also, this story has three parts, although the third part is only going to be one or two chapters. This chapter ends the first part, which I titled <span>The Reason.<span> The next part starts with eleven and is called The Reaction. I'm not saying what the third is, not until I get there. The chapters will still be posted on this story.**

**Prowls-little-angel: I feel stupid for asking, but what does PO stand for? I don't know for sure what Slipstream is, and everywhere I look there isn't an answer. The ones I put last chapter I found a bunch of different places, and I came up with one or two. I agreed with some of them. Yeah, I thought the may and might thing was interesting when I read the article about it. Can't wait to see, it'll be fun to watch.**

**Thanks for reads and reviews! Part two will have a lot more characters, but most of them are G1 characters that I decided to bring in. Next chapter will take place after a large time span, so they'll be older.**


	11. Part Two Chapter 11

**Part Two**

**Chapter Eleven**

"Are you serious?"

Of course she was serious. She had never been more serious in her life. The much younger femme was gaping at her. It may have been sudden, but it was time and everyone was ready. Well, ready enough. There were fourteen Seekers ready and present. Six Seekers were on Cybertron, though two were offline. Two were in imprisonment, while two were under constant watch. There was also one spy, who was not a Seeker, that would help with the conquest. That made nineteen ready soldiers, even though four of them would be a little tricky to get to.

"Good," Skyliner praised, even though he didn't look very happy. For all anyone knew, he could have been sarcastic. The light blue, silver, and white seeker had been gone for two-thirds of the half of a vorn* that had passed since Sunstorm and Shadow had made their arrival. Slipstream had been a little shocked to find him back; she had thought that he would never come back. What made it more surprising was that he had brought three Seekers with him. Not clones, actual Seekers like Starscream. It was good to get a more variety of voices around here.

"It's just, it's been so long, I hadn't even thought about for a while," Shadow admitted.

"Well, it's all true. We're returning to Cybertron. All of us. We will never have to gaze at that disgusting organic planet ever again," Slipstream promised. There were a few cheers going around, but some kept quiet.

"It's about time," Spinshade sighed. "The whole reason I joined up with you bots is to take over Cybertron. If Skyliner hadn't mentioned that, then me and my trine would never have joined you." The Seeker was blue, teal, and mint colored, and the leader of the trine that Skyliner had brought back with him.

"Yes, I can hardly wait!" Streamline, a white, gold, and silver Seeker rejoiced. "I thought I might offline of boredom if I had to wait another orbital cycle here with everyone, no offence or anything." He smiled at everyone, leaning backwards over a table so his back was on the table, while his pedes, his servos, and his helm hung over the edges. So in his optics, everything was upside-down. No one knew why he was laying like that, though.

"Will I be going?" The youngest of them all asked. It was Downpour, a very young youngling. He was only slightly younger than Shadow had been when they first met her, but acted younger than she had. Shadow herself was now at the end of the youngling stage, not quite a full grown femme but close enough. Because of this, she still wore the different armour.

"Of course you'll be going," Shadow told him. They had grown very close, being the youngest members of the group.

Downpour smiled up at her. "You'll be going too, right?"

"Indeed I will. And when we get there, you'll get to meet your creators." She gave him an encouraging smile, and boy was he encouraged.

"My carrier and sire? I'll finally be able to see them?" He turned to Slipstream. "When are we leaving?"

"Now, if that's alright with everyone." She was pleased with the excitement she was getting. It was going to make things much easier in their conquest to destroy the Autobots. She knew there was always going to be someone who didn't want to go.

And there he was, about to speak. "Do we have to go just yet?"

"Skywarp, we still have the trip there, remember?" Slipstream reminded him. They would have to find the nearest space bridge, besides the one on Earth. There was no way they'd be able to sneak through that one easily. Fortunately, Skyliner and the trine seemed to know where a good one was.

"Yes, I guess so," Skywarp reluctantly agreed, looking down at his pedes as he shuffled uncomfortably.

"Good, then shall we board our vessel?" Spinshade suggested, eager to leave.

"Yes, just give me one moment," Slipstream agreed, exiting the room and leaving the others to get ready. Not that there was much to do to get ready, but still. She entered a barely used room. It was still lined with protoforms, but they had run out of material to make clones after Jet. Actually, it was Thrust's fault; he had accidentally destroyed most of the remaining pieces while having a fight with Jet, who, in the end, lost. And yes, Jet was still known as Jet. No better name had ever showed up, so it just stuck.

Slipstream made her way to the end of the hall, stopping near a compartment. Inside was the remaing Allspark fragment. She subspaced it, just in case she would need it. She took one look at the protoforms, then made up her mind. She commed Skywarp, telling him to warp to where she was. He was there in a matter of astroseconds, slightly nervous at why she had requested him.

"Take some of these protoforms back with us. No sense leaving them here when we'll never return," Slipstream ordered. Skywarp obliged, warping back and forth between the room and the cargo ship, taking what was left of the protoforms. Satisfied, Slipstream made her way to the ship herself, finding that everyone was already on it.

"This will work, right?" Eclipse, a black, white, and pine green femme Seeker asked. She was the third in the trine. "As much as I hate to admit it, the Autobots won't be easy to defeat."

"The more the better!" Streamline countered, laughing at something kept quiet.

"Don't worry, we have a plan," Slipstream promised. She hadn't let any of the trine know all of her intentions. In fact, the only other bot she had told the full extent of the mission was the spy on Cybertron so she would know what to do.

Spinshade would be piloting the ship. He had already left to do that, leaving everyone else to find their designated positions. Slipstream would handle communications, which she didn't mind at all. Shadow and Downpour were with Sunstorm in the cargo bay, which was the largest room on the ship. He would be giving them both last minute training. Downpour wasn't very good at fighting, but that was okay. He was needed for something else. There were only a few berths, so recharge would be scheduled to make sure everyone got an equal amount.

The ship took off, no one taking any last look at their makeshift home as they departed. No one wanted to return there, stranded on a pathetic moon in some other galaxy. No, they all wanted to be back on Cybertron, and most of them wanted to be in command. Megatron might have failed, but Slipstream vowed they would not. The Seekers had something he had failed to bring to the Decepticons: Unity. Of course, they didn't get along with one another, but if one was about to get offlined, they would help. Though, she had worried whether or not Skywarp could bring himself to help another if it was dangerous to do so.

They weren't going to just charge right into Cybertron with null rays firing randomly. They had a carefully laid out plan to complete the objective, and they were hoping it would go flawlessly. They also hoped to get some reinforcements once they got there, and not just from the spy.

Skyliner, Dirge, and Thundercracker were already in recharge. Sunstorm, Shadow, and Downpour were in the cargo bay, hopefully keeping away from the protoforms. Sunstorm had been instructed to teach close combat so it would be less likely they'd damage the ship with fire power. That left Slipstream, Eclipse, Skywarp, Spinshade, Ramjet, Streamline, Thrust, and Jet in the bridge. After setting the route they would be taking, Spinshade had changed it to autopilot. It would take them an orbital cycle to reach the space bridge.

"This is taking too long!" Jet complained.

"Oh yes, we've been on our way for quite some time now" Ramjet commented, sitting in one of the chairs.

"I agree, when will we get there!" Streamline whined. Such an impatient bot. No, it wasn't that he was impatient, that was Thrust. Streamline just was the complete opposite of Skywarp. He wasn't afraid of anything, even though he wasn't the strongest fighter out there. Like Thrust, however, he loved to fight. Maybe he was impatient then.

"We get there in do time, just be patient about it," Spinshade commanded his trine member.

Slipstream had considered splitting into trines, but it would take the agreement of her whole team. Trines just seemed to form naturally. If she were to divide them into trines, two of them wouldn't be in one. Trines were always made up of three, no more, no less. In her processor, her trine would be with Thundercracker and Skywarp. The coneheads would all be a trine. That was Ramjet, Dirge, and Thrust. Ramjet still had the helm Swindle had given him, and while waiting for Downpour to age, they had all been visited by Swindle. After discussing it with them, Swindle had given Dirge and Thrust each their own cone-shaped helm. So they were the coneheads, and they would be a trine, leaving Jet, Shadow, Sunstorm, Downpour, and Skyliner. Downpour would be part of the one with his creators, if they are able to join them. She had always guessed Shadow would be best with her brothers. That left Skyliner, Jet, and Sunstorm. If Jetstream and Streaker were still online, then she would pair them with Skyliner because of their history together. That still left Sunstorm and Jet. Neither of them are very compatible with each other. They were just the two odd ones that didn't seem to fit with anyone. If Starscream were still online, then maybe...

No, she wouldn't think about that worthless pile of scrapmetal anymore. He wouldn't help them in the way they wanted it. He would try to be the leader of them all, and any other Decepticons that have managed to survive freely this long. That reminded her, was she doing this under the name of the Decepticons or Seeker? She guessed both, as she still had the insignia and the new trine was definitely in favor of the Decepticons. Besides, not all of them were Seekers, there was still the spy.

Time passes and the Seekers seem more spread out throughout the ship. Sunstorm, Ramjet, and Streamline were recharging. Slipstream herself was in the bridge still, having nowhere better to go. Deciding to stretch out her joints, she got up from her seat and quietly walked out of the room. No one questioned this or cared, for that matter. She hadn't expected them to.

Silently walking through the ship, she came across Eclipse. They both stared at each other for a moment, then Eclipse shuffled past her and kept moving on her way. Slipstream stood still for another astrosecond, then proceeded in her own direction. She knew Eclipse didn't like her, and quite frankly, she didn't like her either. There wasn't a real reason why, it just was that way.

"Slipstream?" A voice behind her called out. She turned around to see Shadow. Instead of saying anything, she merely waited for her to continue, which she did. "Are we going to get my brothers when we get there?"

"The first thing we'll do is exactly that, and one other thing," Slipstream answered.

Shadow looked relieved, but not completely satisfied. Probably because she was talking to a Decepticon, and they're known to lie. Slipstream doesn't lie as much as Ramjet does, but she has before. Though, that time she was telling the truth. The first thing she wanted to do was get the twins, Dawn, and Acid Storm back. It had been decided after much debate what they would do. It was that or plan a surprise attack on Ultra Magnus, offlining the old bot. She and the others would have liked to do that, but because none of them knew exactly where he was, it would be hard for Skywarp to warp into the correct place. If they were caught before they could even do anything, then the Autobots might offline any Decepticon prisoners they had, or at least make it harder for them. So, in the end, a rescue mission was decided on first. Even though they all would have liked to use the element of surprise to a better advantage. Still, with the ship undetectable, they still might have that if the Autobots couldn't even find them.

"Why don't we do it all at once?" Thrust had suggested.

"It's not that simple," Spinshade had reminded him. "Autobots are everywhere on Cybertron. If we split up into too small of a group, we could be taken down. And Skywarp is the only one that can teleport, so if you're in danger, you can't always rely on him. Also, someone will stay with the ship."

That was exactly it. After the meeting had ended, it had all been decided: Slipstream, Skywarp, and Thundercracker would go for Dawn and Acid Storm along with Sunstorm. The Coneheads and Shadow would go for the twins. That left the trine, Skyliner, Jet, and Downpour on the ship. The trine would be ready for backup for whomever needs it. Downpour was staying for the obvious reasons of not trained enough to fight an Autobot, especially with his age. Jet and Skyliner had volunteered to stay. So really, there wasn't anyone to spare for an assassination. Also, Slipstream secretly had a reason to keep Ultra Magnus alive. If they were to lose this assault and he were offline, that would most likely put Sentinel in charge. He would make sure they were all offlined on the spot. At least with Ultra Magnus they had a chance to survive. There was also the matter of Optimus Prime, but from she had heard he was on Earth with his old team visiting their techno-organic friend. From what Dirge had explained during one of those boring cycles, humans age quicker than Cybetronians. The techno half of the child must have increased her life-span if she was still very much online.

At the end of the orbital cycle and into the next, they finally came across an unguarded space bridge. Skywarp was the one to operate the thing, inputting the coordinates. Their spy was on the receiving end, waiting for them. Slipstream wasn't sure how she was able to get a hold of a space bridge unnoticed, but she didn't question their luck.

And onward they went, finally reaching their destination.

Cybertron.

* * *

><p><strong>Welcome to part two! *Alright, after much though on the subject, and taking into consideration all of the Transformers shows that I've watched, I finally decided on a time span to have passed. From what I can tell, Transformers age at a slower rate than humans, so at first I chose a vorn. That seemed too long, so I cut it in half. A vorn is 83 years, so this is about 41 years later. I never decided on an exact scale of how long equals one human year, but it's more than two years. Shadow is somewhere near a full grown femme, like a stellar cycle or two away. Downpour is (if he were a human) like somewhere between seven and nine. If there are anymore questions on that subject, or I made it too confusing, let me know and I'll answer all questions. Unless they spoil something, then I won't.<strong>

**Prowls-little-angel: Ohh, I feel dumb for not getting for Blitzwing, well you'll find out. Thanks for the reveiws! Oh no! Don't get caught by Sentinel! **

**LucasVN: Thanks for pointing out a grammar error, although the would is past tense and Shadow is speaking about the future (saying he will not survive. Would not survive would make it seem like she already knew that he would be fine), so will should be used (I could be wrong, the definition of would confuses me somewhat). Didn't is also past tense, and agains she's referring to the future ("...if he doesn[o]t get enough energon and other needs.") when she thinks about him not getting any, so does fits better in that sense.(Sorry if I seem harsh or anything while talking about grammar, I'm not trying to be mean or anything.)**

**Thanks for reads, reviews, and favorites!**


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter Twelve**

Forward sat at his desk at his home. It was only his home now though; earlier in life he had lived in an apartment. Now he had moved in with his girlfriend, Nowli. They had gotten together quite some time ago. He had become an intelligence agent not long ago after the decrease in interest about the Seekers. It had been half of a vorn since the Seekers had last been seen. No one had ever come for the yellow and green ones or the twins. It was because of that that Sentinel had been forced to finally release the twins more than twenty stellar cycles ago under the condition that they'd be under watch. That was why he'd moved in with her in the first place: to watch over them more easily.

Speaking of said twins...

"Glyde, what are you doing?" Forward turned around to face the yellow and black Seeker. The mech was standing there, looking all innocent, but his brother was absent from the scene.

"We need help," Glyde admitted, somewhat reluctantly.

"What happened?" Forward wasn't too surprised.

"Cloud got stuck...again."

Forward sighed. This happened way to often for his liking. The twins had been living with him and Nowli ever since they were let out. It was mainly because they had nowhere else to stay, and Nowli had taken a liking to them. Forward hadn't seen them as much as she had, but they weren't _awful_ or anything of the sort.

He followed Glyde outside of the home and around to the back. There, Cloud was seen in the air, held up by two metal claws. "This was a stupid idea," Cloud told them.

"You say that every time we attempt it," Glyde reminded him.

"And I mean it every time."

The problem was, Nowli had gotten a little paranoid lately and had set up a security system to make sure no one snuck up on them. It was Glyde's brilliant idea to use the security system as a training course to see if either of them could get through it. Glyde had been successful after a while of trying, but Cloud just couldn't seem to get the hang of it. The things boredom does to one's mind.

And Forward was the only other person who had the code to shut it down. The other bot was Nowli.

"Stop doing this," Forward instructed them while he keyed in the code.

"What else are we supposed to do to entertain ourselves?" Glyde asked as Cloud hung limp in the air.

"Make some friends," Forward suggested. He shut the system off, hearing Cloud almost fall to the ground before activating his thrusters and landing gracefully.

"They don't like us," Glyde reminded him. "And I don't like them either."

"Oh come on," the white and mint green Seeker disagreed. "You just have to show them that you're not a Decepticon.

There was no answer from Glyde. Forward knew that Cloud was the more sensible of the pair, and thanked him for that. It would have been worse if they were both like Glyde.

"Listen to your brother, Glyde. He makes sense."

Glyde gave a small glare to the ground mech, but didn't say anything. Forward held back a sigh. Glyde was like that, and he had learned to deal with it. He was kinder to Nowli, but Forward wasn't sure why. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that Forward had been the one that usually tracked down their sister, but Nowli had helped him with that. So had Hound, but not as much because the green mech had a life outside of their special little group.

Ah, the group. It still existed, but it's just been lying a little dormant. There just hasn't been any need to continue any investigation about the Seekers if they we're leaving them alone for so long. More members had joined their team, but it was too late for any action. Two of them were a pair of twins that usually helped Ironhide and Nowli watch over the stockade. With more bots in the stockade, there was reason to increase security. Especially because Acid Storm had escaped from his cell six times throughout the period of time he was in there for. No one could figure out how he managed to override the security system from _inside_ the cell, but he had. Six times. Thankfully, he had never made it completely out of the stockade. Someone always caught him and he was restrained and in the end put back in a cell. When he wasn't trying to escape, he was talking. He was pretty friendly with them, even though he wore the Decepticon insignia on his wings. Well, not friendly as in he wouldn't hurt them if he needed to, but enough to carry on a conversation with.

Dawn, on the other servo, was quiet and didn't speak a word to them. She never did attempt a break out like Acid Storm did, but some bots still preferred him. Forward guessed that she just had never forgave them for separating her from her sparkling. He and Jazz had never told anyone about the sparkling, and it seemed Mirage and Hound had kept quiet about it as well.

"Forward!" A soft voice called out to him from the front of their home. He left the twins in the back to go and greet his girlfriend, who had just returned from her shift on guard duty. When he rounded the corner, she smiled cheerfully at him. "What were you doing back there?"

"Cloud got stuck in your security trap again. Why do we need that? No one's going to attack us that hasn't already," Forward tried to convince her.

Nowli's smiled shrunk, but didn't disappear. "I'm afraid, Forward. I can't explain it, but I'm nervous about something."

"Well, you and I both know that they aren't going to stop using your trap for training or whatever they do. So, either it gets shut down, or we continue to free them over and over again." He followed her inside as he talked.

"I'm fine with the way it is right now." She walked over to grab a cube of energon. "Want any?" She asked Forward.

"Not now, I just had some earlier." He relaxed himself on the couch, staring out the window at the crowded street. Nowli soon returned to sit next to him, facing the same direction. Forward noticed she looked tired. "Something happen?"

She groaned. "Sideswipe nearly started a fight with Shockwave again." Ah yes, Sideswipe. One of the twins who had recently joined their team. He wasn't too fond of Decepticons, and every Autobot hated Shockwave. Sometimes, Forward would forget about Shockwave and some other Decepticons that were still in the stockade. Unfortunately, the large one, Lugnut, had his personality component removed and stored in the detention center when he nearly killed them all in his rage at Megatron's deactivation.

Blitzwing was also still there. He hadn't gotten any saner ever since he was shoved into his cell. He is usually found talking to himself with his many faces and personalities. Sometimes, when they were bored, Autobots would just listen to his strange conversations with himself, laughing here and there. It really was amusing sometimes, and Forward wasn't innocent when it came to eavesdropping on him.

"What happened?" Forward asked the black and white femme.

"Ironhide delt with him. Shockwave kept calm through most of it, but you can just tell that he wouldn't mind harming Sideswipe, or worse. And that's not just it. Ironhide told me Sentinel's all moody again after his last fight with Elita-1."

Forward nodded. That was like him. Elita-1 was an Autobot who turned into a techno-organic, joining the Decepticons when she felt betrayed, and then found a way to cure herself with the help of Optimus Prime. She then rejoined the Autobots, albeit somewhat reluctantly. While she had been techno-organic, she had allied herself with her own creation, Waspinator. Both were found, but when they were found - and it was actually on a whole other planet - there were other techno-organics living on that planet. Waspinator had refused to return to Cybertron, saying that the Autobots would only put him back in the stockade. Blackarachnia returned with Optimus after much persuasion and was finally cured. Her and Sentinel didn't get along most of the time, despite being friends in the past. She had reformed a friendship with Optimus Prime, and sometimes Forward wondered if it was ever more than that. She must see Sentinel a lot, because recently he's been complaining about her attitude towards him.

"Again?" Forward responded.

Nowli nodded. "This time, it was something about the way Sentinel takes care of things, you know, usually irrationally."

Forward chuckled. "Yeah, he needs to think more before he acts."

Nowli took a drink of her energon. "I'm hoping Optimus becomes Magnus instead of him when the time comes." Forward agreed. Optimus Prime would make a much better Magnus than Sentinel ever would.

The twins came back inside at that moment, greeting Nowli before walking into their shared room.

"See? Cloud's fine," Nowli joked.

Forward chuckled. "Still, I think you're being too paranoid."

She finished her energon before stretching out her joints. "I think I'm going to take a quick recharge. Wake me if anything happens."

"Nothing exciting is going to happen," Forward assured her before getting off the couch so she could stretch out on it and recharge there.

"You never know with those two," she reminded him, her optics offlining.

"Correction: You never know with Glyde. I'm pretty sure Cloud can keep him from any trouble in the short while you'll be recharging." He walked away though, not hearing any answer. It seemed to him that she had already gone into recharge, so he left her alone. Walking down the hall, he heard arguing coming from the twins room.

"I'm not joining the Autobots!" He heard one of them state. He figured it was probably Glyde, but they sounded alike.

"It won't be that bad," the probable Cloud tried to reason. "What's wrong with them?"

"They tore up our family! I'm never going to join them! They're evil!"

That stung Forward a little, but he kept listening.

"They're only trying to take caution-"

"You're siding with them? You don't care that they offlined our creators and drove our sister off of Cybertron!"

Forward wasn't sure if that last part was true, but it was a very likely possibility. They had never found Shadow or any other Seekersever since the orbital cycle when Acid Storm and Dawn were captured. Most of them thought they had gone to join the other Seekers, if they were still on Earth's moon.

"I don't like what they did, Glyde, but you can't say they're all bad. What about Forward and Nowli?" That proved Forward to be correct with his guessing on who was who.

"...The others are bad! None of the others care about us!" Forward was glad that Glyde didn't hate him or Nowli, but he wished he wouldn't be so quick to judge all Autobots. Although, Forward did understand why he would be so mad at them.

"Are you saying you'd rather be a Decepticon? Those bots would care about you less than any Autobots do." Forward tensed. He wanted to really know Glyde's true answer to this question.

"I know that. I just don't want to be an Autobot. I'd rather just stay neutral like this. Let's just forget about factions and stay the way we are." Forward was relieved that Glyde didn't want to become a Decepticon.

"Alright. But if you were ever forced to choose a side, I hope you choose the right one."

Forward figured that was the end of that particular conversation, and decided it best to not be caught right outside their door if they chose to walk out at that moment. So instead, he walked back to his own room and sat down at his desk, deciding it best to finish the work he had been doing before Glyde had interrupted him because of Cloud.

He hadn't had any major assignments in a long time, so the work Forward was doing right now wasn't too exciting or appealing. It was very boring. Still, it had to be done. He didn't mind his job, but sometimes he wished he had a more normal life. Then again, if he did have a normal civilian's life, then he wouldn't have ever joined the Seeker team or learned as much combat as he did. He told himself when he was training that it would all be put to good use in the future. He supposed it was, even if it wasn't always exciting and sometimes he regretted it.

He worked for another megacycle before he heard something. It sounded like the twins outside, but he couldn't figure out what they were saying or doing. Leaving his desk and room, he walked past the still recharging Nowli and out the front door, moving to go around the house until he found the twins.

"I'm not changing my mind!" Glyde stated defiantly. They were both staring at something in the sky, but nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

"And I'm not going to force you, but understand that there's nothing there," Cloud reasoned.

"You say you're not going to force me and then tell me to understand your opinion like it's a fact."

"What are you looking at?" Forward cut in, following Glyde's gaze but seeing nothing, like Cloud had said.

"Glyde thinks he saw a ship," Cloud explained, sounding slightly annoyed.

"I _did_ see a ship! It was there, but only for a moment! Maybe it's invisible!" Glyde wouldn't take his optics off of the sky, probably hoping to spot the ship again. If it even was there to begin with.

"It's just your imagination," Cloud told him. "There isn't a ship out there, so let's go back inside."

Glyde didn't move. Forward knew he wouldn't unless truly persuaded to, so he decided to watch the sky along with Glyde. They stood there like that for a cycle before Cloud sighed and went back inside. And while Cloud's sigh had been out of annoyance, Glyde's was out of depression. Forward just gazed for a moment longer before following the twins inside the home.

"Something happen?" An online Nowli asked from the couch when the walked in.

"Glyde's delusional," Cloud told her.

"I am not! I did see a ship and I'm not going to let you tell me otherwise!" He stamped his pede on the floor before walking back outside, defeating the purpose of going inside in the first place.

"A ship? What kind of ship?" Nowli asked as she stood up.

"I don't know, but it's not there and never was," Cloud said as if it were a fact.

"Hm, well anyway, I think I'm going to finish my recharge in my room." She made her way to said location, patting Cloud on the shoulder as she passed him.

Forward took the now vacant spot on the couch and decided to lie down. He offlined his optics and stayed that way until he heard Glyde yell something about an invasion from outside. He shot up, fully online, as Nowli stepped out of her room.

"What's going on?" She asked, looking at the door.

"I don't know." They both went out the door and saw not one Seeker like they should have, but five Seekers. Forward recognized only two of the new ones. Three of them had cone shaped helms and the other was younger looking. She may be older now, but Forward knew she was the same youngling he had spent his time tracking all of those stellar cycles ago. It was Glyde, though, who turned his thoughts into words.

"Is that you, Shadow?"

* * *

><p><strong>Cliffhanger? It's been some time since the last chapter with both of the twins. I like writing them, even though this chapter was from Forward's POV and not Cloud's. I'm also not a big romance person when it comes to writing, so I'm sorry if I do really bad at it in future chapter(s). Still...I don't really have much to say this time.<strong>

**Prowls-little-angel: Sorry about the grammar thing, I wasn't thinking and put it all under one person. Then I fixed it, then realized that editing the chapter wasn't changing the published version, so I deleted it and reuploaded it with the correct author's note. I also just realized that in last chapter's note, I acidentally combined two sentences into one. It should say "I feel dumb for not getting it. As for Blitzwing.." and then to the end of the sentence. Us humans are great, when we're not ruining things... Sentinel would make a horrible Magnus. And you agreed with Slipstream about what, exactly? Thanks, I'm glad you like this story.**

**Kitty Ghost: Starscream...hm, I had never planned on putting him in here, he is offline and all, but I may be able to think of something. I'm not done writing this after all, even though I am close. At this very moment, I've just finished chapter eighteen. I hope the battle scenes I've written please you and the others. I'm not great when writing a scene like that when there are so many characters fighting. I'm glad you like the story.**

**Thanks for reads and reviews!**


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter Thirteen**

Shadow stared into the purple optics of her older brother. A new found anger shot through her when she realized that he was still neutral. "You're still neutral? After everything they've done to you?"

Glyde looked taken aback at her outburst. "Well, yeah, I am. I don't exactly like the Autobots, but that doesn't mean I want to be a Decepticon."

Shadow couldn't believe him. They had practically been kidnapped, locked up for who knows how long, and he _still_ didn't want to be a Decepticon. Throughout their childhood, a lot of the Autobot civilians looked down on them as if they were strange and inferior. Glyde had been a carefree youngling, so he hadn't really noticed this quiet - well most of the time - hatred towards them. When Shadow noticed it, she told her brother, but he didn't seem to care. So, does that mean he still doesn't care?

Shadow recognized the two bots behind her brother. Although she didn't know the femme's name, she remembered Forward well enough.

That's when Cloud showed up behind the Autobots, flying over them to stand with his younger twin. "Sis?"

His optics were purple as well. "You too? Why are you still neutral?"

He seemed surprised by her, whether it was her question or her very presence. It had been awhile since they last saw each other optic to optic. "I don't want to be a Decepticon, if that's what you mean."

She couldn't believe them. "How could you betray me? Betray us!" She yelled at them.

"We didn't, you did," Cloud pointed out. "We've never changed, you're the one who changed."

"Well, I wouldn't say that," Glyde disagreed, and for a moment Shadow saw hope. "I have changed, just not enough to join a faction. Though I almost did."

"Almost isn't good enough!" Shadow cried out with rage. She looked at the two Autobots. She wanted to offline them so bad right now. It was their fault that her brothers were turning against her. They had been living under bad influence, and she wanted to change that, make them see the truth.

"Look, we have orders," Thrust began, reminding Shadow that they were there too. "We were told to bring the twin Seekers back with us, using force if necessary. The Autobots are to be deactivated as well. Now come on, please tell me we aren't going to do this the easy way?"

A fight was inevitable when Thrust was with you. He loved to fight, and fight he shall. Shadow was just worried about which side her brothers would choose to fight alongside.

"If we go with you, will you leave them alone?" Cloud asked, indicating the Autobots. One of them looked like they had opened a private comm. link, which unnerved Shadow.

"No, are you kidding me? I came here for a fight!" Thrust denied.

"Let's hurry before they bring in reinforcements," Dirge pushed. Shadow agreed, but kept quiet.

"Fine, it shouldn't take too long any way," Thrust boasted. He then transformed and flew up into the air, swooping back down and cannonading them with his null rays.

The twin Seekers flew in opposite directions, landing neatly on the ground away from the blasts. The femme flipped backwards until she was out of his range, and the mech tried to maneuver his way out too, but ended up getting blasted in the shoulder. The other two coneheads joined in on the fun, Dirge joining Thrust as they attacked the mech while Ramjet went for the femme.

Shadow activated her thrusters and flew towards Glyde. She knocked him over and hovered over him as he lay on the ground, supporting himself by his elbows. "Do we need to use force on you?"

He gave her a strange look before answering. "You may have to. There were plenty of times in the stockade where I wanted to be a Decepticon, but I never really did. I'm not going to, my minds made up. I still don't like the Autobots, but I'm not going to harm the ones that actually did care for me." He looked at the two who were fighting the coneheads.

Shadow was about to reply when she felt someone on her back. She fell forward, just missing Glyde, and felt the figure on top of her retreat to a standing position. She turned around to see Cloud standing over her with Glyde next to him.

"We were worried about you, Shadow," Cloud admitted. "All of those stellar cycles in the stockade, and we never got any information on you or our creators except for once. It broke our sparks to hear that they were offline, and when we were told that you were on the run, we didn't think it was with the help of the Decepticons. It sounded more like you were evading getting caught because you were afraid."

Shadow took that in, but didn't change her mind about anything. "Well, yeah, I got help from Decepticons. They helped me, took care of me. The Autobots are the ones who are evil!" She sprang up, attempting and succeeding to cut Cloud with one of the swords attached to her arms. She never had gotten nullrays.

Cloud staggered backwards, clutching at his cockpit where the blade had hit him. Shadow then realized that they were defenseless, with no weapons and probably no training to help them.

Glyde got in between them, glaring at Shadow. "You've changed, little sister."

"I haven't changed, just acted on my feelings. I've always had a reason to dislike the Autobots." She knew then that there would be no way they would come quietly, so she tried attacking Glyde, but he flew out of reach, grabbing Clouds servo and pulling him up with him. Cloud pulled himself from his brother, using his own thrusters to keep steady in the air.

"You wanna go?" Thrust yelled out, and Shadow turned to see him speeding towards a couple of civilians that had gathered around to see what was going on. This wasn't good, any moment now more Autobots would show up.

She flew into the air, chasing her brothers. Glyde was still faster than her, but she managed to catch up to Cloud. "I didn't want to do this, but I'm left with no choice." She lunged sideways into Cloud, slicing at his right thruster and causing him to fly around, off balance. He flew into the wall of the home he had been living in, his left thrusters switching off as he fell and hit the ground, unconscious.

Glyde dived down to land near his older brother, shaking his body but getting no reply. He turned towards Shadow, still elevated, and shot up into the air, grabbing her ankles.

"Let go of me!" Shadow ordered, not wanting to use her blades if her only target was his face. She could go for the arms, but decided to wait it out.

"Ah!" Someone cried. Glyde and Shadow both turned to see the femme fall forward, Ramjet having just shot her knees. Ramjet didn't waste any time and fired a null at her chasis. She gave out one more cry before falling onto her back, legs bent underneath her.

"Nowli!" Forward called out, kicking Dirge before rushing to her side. Everyone was watching now, and even Glyde seemed to forget he had been trying to restrain his sister.

Forward knelt down next to her, pulling her into his lap. He said something, but Shadow couldn't hear it. She tried to edge closer, then remembered the black and yellow twin hanging onto her. She deactivated her thrusters for a moment, then reactivated them, causing Glyde to slip out from underneath her. She crept closer to the Autobots, not wanting to interrupt.

The color was draining from the femme, black, white, and red turning to grey as her optics got duller. She raised a shaking servo and placed it on Forward's green chasis. It lingered there for a moment, before falling back onto her side, her head falling back as well. Her whole body was different shades of grey and her optics were offline.

Shadow knew at that moment, that she was completely offline.

"No!" Forward cried out, and Dirge and Thrust used his temporary distraction to grab Glyde and hold him down. He put up a struggle, but the two were too strong form him. Ramjet grabbed Cloud and Shadow knew that they would be returning now. She followed them as the four of them, plus the twins, returned to the still invisible ship successful. Shadow didn't personally know that femme, so she really didn't give much thought to the loss. She had known that Autobots would be killed, and possibly comrades as well.

Above her, Glyde was throwing a fit. "Let me go! I don't want to go with you! Just leave me and Cloud alone!" She could tell that he was angry at them for more reasons than one. "We didn't ask to join you, so why do we have to come? Are we going to be kept prisoner? This is kidnapping, you know!"

Shadow sped up to catch up with the two coneheads and Glyde. "Like it isn't the first time," she reminded him.

He ignored her, still trying to gain freedom from his captors. She sighed, and they finally reached their ship. Someone opened the door and the six of them entered, two forcefully. Ramjet still held the slightly smaller Seeker and the other two didn't dare let go of Glyde.

Eclipse approached them. "They didn't want to come, did they?"

Shadow shook her head, but Ramjet answered. "What are you talking about? They were all for joining us! Haven't seen anyone as enthusiastic as they were."

Eclipse shrugged, then turned to walk back. "I take it your mission was a success? You didn't call for help."

They followed her. "Ramjet offlined an Autobot," Thrust mentioned.

"Good, one down." They followed her into the bridge, still forcing a reluctant Glyde to go with them. On the way there, they stopped by a room and locked Cloud in it. They weren't sure how long he would be out of it, and they didn't want to take any chances in him leaving. The Autobots finding out about them was inevitable, but they still didn't want their efforts to have been for nothing.

When the rest of them entered the bridge, Glyde was already demanding a medic for Cloud. "He's in pain, the least you can do is repair him." He was obviously angry with them for what they did, and Shadow guessed that most of his hate was directed at her. She had, after all, been the one that hurt Cloud.

"Once we get Dawn and Acid Storm, Dawn'll look at him," Eclipse told him. The others were in the bridge as well, minus the four on Cybetron still. "One Autobot down," she informed Spinshade and the others.

"Excellent," Spinshade celebrated, an evil grin spreading on his face.

Streamline gave them a thumbs up, then asked who committed the crime. Dirge replied, telling him about how it was Ramjet who did it. Streamline ran over, gave Ramjet a hard pat on the shoulder, then returned to his chair.

"It was so easy, anyone could have done it," Ramjet bragged.

"Really? It looked easy," Shadow questioned.

"It was," Ramjet pushed.

Glyde had stopped struggling and instead was giving them all a confused look. Shadow decided that she would have to explain all about the Seekers' personalities to him later when she found the time. And she was certain she would have time to catch up with her brothers, and hopefully let them see reason enough to join her. It already broke her spark enough when she fought with them. She had missed them for suck a long time, and when she finally saw them again, they're her enemies.

"What do you want?" Glyde finally asked after a moment to himself.

"Cybertron, what else?" Spinshade said like it was the most obvious thing in the world. Streamline snickered.

The door opened, and in walked Slipstream. "It's not just Cybetron we want," she corrected. "We want a home."

* * *

><p><strong>Not a very good reunion, huh? Nothing seemed to go right for anyone, did it? I got a little battle in, I hope I did it justice. I know I didn't write much about the fight with Forward, Nowli, and the coneheads. This chapter was from Shadow's POV though, so I focused it more on her and the twins. I've never given Forward or Nowli a weapon, like a gun or some sort of ninja-like weapon. I should probably do that some time in the future, or at least give Forward one.<strong>

**Prowls-little-angel: Everyone makes mistakes! Unless you're some alien species that's born perfect for everything...but so far I don't know an alien race like that. Also, it's Heth, not Het. I'm not sure if that was just a typing error or not, but I felt the need to state that. And Sentinel better watch out, he's got quite a few enemies, or just people who just plain hate him. He better not become Magnus. And yes, I wanted Elita-1 back, so she's back. Yay! Huh, I never knew whether to put more Ps or Ss when writing more than one P.S. Do you happen to know what that stands for? And thanks!**

**Thanks for reading and reviewing! Next chapter we get to see how Slipstream and her team did, even though we already know that Slipstream returned. Doesn't mean the others did.**


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter Fourteen**

Skywarp, after seeing what Cybertron looked like outside of the building they were about to enter, warped each of them into a small and concealed ally. Slipstream was the first one he conveyed, and when she got there she looked around to make sure they really were where they should be and Skywarp hadn't screwed up. It seemed like he had been correct, and they were in the right spot. Now, the tricky part was going to be getting into the desired building.

Once all four of them were together and present, they began their mission. Sunstorm would be of great help, seeing as he had been in the stockade before. Hopefully things hadn't changed too much since then.

The easiest way, of course, would be to just waltz right through the front door and ask for their comrades back. Now, it was obvious that they couldn't do that. So, they needed a way in and less security. That was Skywarp's first job.

Using his new weapon, Skywarp sent a heat seeking missile at a nearby building that most likely belonged to someone important. Someone had just entered the building, so the missile, accompanied by a few others, hit the building at the bottom by the door. The part exploded, and some of the building looked unstable, as if it were about to collapse. Autobots that had been near the building were panicking, looking for the source of the destruction while also trying to save the building and those inside.

Slipstream looked to the front door of their real target building. Two Autobots that had been standing guard saw the commotion and began to rush towards the building. Optics were still watchful, so the hidden Seekers couldn't move out into the open just yet. More bots were moving in on the scene, trying to figure out what to do. Throughout the commotion, Skywarp was able to easily shoot more missiles into the bottom without being detected.

Five more Autobots showed up, most of them baring the colors white and red. They then combined to form a much larger Autobot, one as large as Omega Supreme. This unnerved Slipstream, as she knew from experience that he hadn't been easy to take down. Neither would this one.

The combined Autobot grabbed hold of the building, holding it up and keeping it from collapsing. More Autobots were exiting the building, and Slipstream knew it was now or never.

Instead of using the unguarded door, she led them up to a roof. Everyone was too distracted to notice them fly above the large structure and land on top of it. Luckily, there was some sort of hatch on the roof, probably for emergency escapes. Now, it was going to be used as a needed entrance.

And in they went, being as quiet as they could. They all knew that this would be extremely hard for them, but on they went, sneaking down corridors and hiding from passing Autobots. Sunstorm was of no help to them, as he had didn't remember any part of the building besides the stockades. This annoyed Slipstream, but she kept quiet. None of them wanted use Skywarp to get in because that would use up too much of his energy when he also had to transport them all back. The reason that Skywarp hadn't just taken them all inside was because he may have accidently sent them into a crowded area, and they didn't want to be detected.

At one point, they did come across an Autobot that spotted them. It was a blue femme, and at first she had been staring at the ground. When she looked up and saw Thundercracker's wing from behind a corner, she approached him cautiously. When she rounded the corner, Thundercracker grabbed her by the neck and slammed her against the wall. He covered her mouth with his other servo. She struggled in his grasp, and Sunstorm came to help him. Using his heat ability, he burned both her arms, causing her to whimper in pain.

"Should we kill it?" Thundercracker asked. She raised a servo to her other arm, looking like she was just trying to comfort it. Then Slipstream realised what she was doing and shot her in the arm. She couldn't allow her to call for help.

Before Thundercracker had even realised he was holding her too hard, she fell limp, not completely offline, but in stasis. He dropped her, and they stared at the body for a moment before Slipstream realised that someone probably heard her null ray. They opened the nearest door, which happened to be a supply closet, and threw her in. After shutting it, they sped down another corridor, finding a way to a lower level and kept moving until they came across a sign. A very helpful sign.

"Stockade's on level three," Slipstream read out loud. The sign showed them a map of the building in case any Autobots got loss. Yet another addition that had helped them. They found a flight of stairs that read level seven. That was the level they were on. Moving downwards, they came across Autobots now and then, but none of them had discovered them yet. Hopefully it would take a long time for any of them to find the femme.

Finally, after quiet some time, they found themselves standing in front of the door to the Stockade. There was bound to be at least two Autobots in there.

"I say we go in, null rays and all, grab the two of them, then warp back as quickly as possible," Thundercracker suggested.

"Remember, I can only take a few at a time," Skywarp reminded him.

"Let's go," Slipstream ordered, and without further discussion, they pressed a button on the panel and walked in.

The first Autobot to spot them was a bulky orange one, who then called out "Sunstreaker, Sideswipe!" Before aiming his blaster at them. Two more Autobots came in, one yellow and black, the other red and black. The yellow and black one shot something on the wall, and the alarm sounded.

"Hurry!" Slipstream commanded, and the four of them split up, two above them as high as the ceiling would allow, and two on their pedes. Slipstream herself was in the air, flying low to the ground after dodging a shot from the yellow one. She let the others deal with the Autobots as she searched for Dawn and Acid Storm. The first one she found was Dawn.

The yellow Seeker seemed surprised to see her after all of these stellar cycles, getting up from her position on the berth and standing in the middle of her cell. Slipstream figured out the panel, and the blue, transparent wall disappeared, allowing Dawn an escape. One she took without hesitation.

"Acid Storm," she said, looking at Slipstream with slight worry.

"I'll find him. Don't worry." She shot forward again, Dawn right behind her. Figures, if Dawn didn't have a weapon to use to fight with, she would join Slipstream in the hunt. Dawn also wasn't able to activate her thrusters, so flying was out of the question.

They found him at the end of the row, already up against the wall in anticipation, waiting for them. A door at the closer end opened, and two mechs jogged in. "Hound and Mirage," Dawn informed Slipstream.

Slipstream opened fire on them as one of them disappeared. She guessed, do to the designation, that that one had been Mirage. The other one, Hound, appeared to have cloned himself twice. Slipstream shot at the two new ones, finding them to be just holograms. That gave the invisible mech enough time to shoot Slipstream in the side.

Fortunately, Dawn had already released Acid Storm. "Skywarp?" She asked Slipstream without looking at her, her attention seized by the two Autobots, one still invisible.

Slipstream picked herself off of the ground. "Yes." She understood what Dawn was asking.

She was correct with her assumption, because at that moment, Dawn called out to the purple and black Seeker, who was using Thundercracker as a shield against the fire power of all three Autobots they were fighting, much to the blue Seeker's annoyance.

When he heard his name, Skywarp flew over, narrowly missing a shot from the yellow Autobot. He bravely shot at Hound, but missed. He switched to his heat-seeking missiles and aimed at Hound, but was blasted by the red mech when he shot it, so the missile appeared to hit nothing, when instead it hit Mirage. The blue and white mech became visible again, looking at Skywarp with distaste.

It was hard for Skywarp to get close enough to them to pick them up. Sunstorm was taking on the orange Autobot, so he was occupied, and Thundercracker was fighting both the other two over near where they had entered from. That left only Slipstream to help Skywarp, which she did. She had to do it while guarding the two escapees, so it wasn't easy. Hound was her opponent at the moment, and Dawn or Acid Storm's thrusters didn't work and their weapons were removed, obviously. They wouldn't be much help like that.

Mirage shot Skywarp down. Skywarp landed on his back, still online, thankfully. He tried to sit up, or stand up, but trembled when he saw Mirage aim to deactivate him.

"No! I don't want to offline!" Skywarp pleaded, but to no avail. Luckily, Thundercracker saw this and fired his null ray at Mirage before he could shoot. Slipstream saw that one of the mechs he had been fighting looked badly damaged, while the yellow one was still in action. The time it took Thundercracker to save Skywarp cost him enough distraction for the yellow Autobot to land a direct hit on Thundercrackers shoulder.

"You insignificant Autobot! How dare you!" And with that said, Thundercracker was once again fighting his own opponent.

Hound injured Dawn, who would have collapsed if it hadn't been for Acid Storm, who was supporting her now. Three more Autobots ran in, these one all femmes. The first one looked to be yellow and green with a dark color amongst the yellow. The second was mainly mint green and the third was red and yellow-orange.

"Need a servo?" The yellow and green one asked the troubled mechs, some of whom looked relieved.

Slipstream knew they were in trouble now. They needed Skywarp to take them back, and fast. He would have to make at least two trips if he could only take two at a time.

"Skywarp!" Slipstream called out to him. He was still struggling to stand, and flinched when he heard his designation called out.

She realized the thought was hopeless and instead ordered Acid Storm to take Dawn to Skywarp. Hopefully, he would still have enough energy and strength to get them all out of here. The two ran as fast as they could to the injured Seeker, who realized what was expected and warped all three of them out as soon as they were within reach.

Slipstream let out a sigh at a successful mission, but her victory was short lived when she remembered that her, Thundercracker, and Sunstorm still needed a way out.

"You Decepti-creeps!" The orange mech yelled out at Sunstorm, who was now dealing with the red femme as well. It was like they were fighting each other due to color scheme.

Thundercracker, on the other servo, had the yellow mech nearly down, but also had the yellow and green femme attacking him. Mirage had joined them, so now he was fending off three Autobots.

Slipstream had the rest. The mint green femme shot twice, each one hitting each of her wings on her insignias. Slipstream fired back, but Hound was attacking from the rear. She activated her thrusters to avoid two more shots from both of her attackers.

That's when Skywarp showed up again, right next to Sunstorm. He grabbed the orange Seeker, and with one look at the odds, warped out with just Sunstorm. The abandoned Autobots now teamed up with the others, and Slipstream now had two femmes firing at her. She couldn't dodge forever, and getting a hit on one of them while dodging another was hard to do.

Skywarp was quicker this time, appearing right on top of Slipstream, finding it easier to just warp onto the Seeker instead of near the Seeker. Without further hesitation, Slipstream was warped out, leaving Thundercracker behind.

When they got to the cargo ship, Slipstream was relieved to have gotten out of there without any serious damage. Skywarp on the other servo, well, he didn't look too good. And yet, he still warped away to get Thundercracker, returning an astrosecond later with said Seeker looking haggard.

Skywarp collapsed onto the floor, going into stasis immediately. Slipstream was surprised he had even returned for them, but it appeared he had some sort of bravery in him. She turned away from the maimed Seeker to find Dawn and Acid Storm right there waiting for them.

"Come on, I'll introduce you to the others, including Downpour," Slipstream requested, waving for them to follow her while leaving Skywarp for Thundercracker to deal with.

Dawn's optics widened, before she said "I should help Skywarp first though. And, he's still alive?" That last part was about Downpour.

"That's, our son right?" Acid Storm asked.

"Yes, he is still alive. I guess you're right, we can't just leave Skywarp like that. How about I bring Acid Storm with me. Thundercracker, show Dawn to a spare room she can use for Skywarp. Acid Storm and Downpour can meet you there," Slipstream suggested. "Oh, and Dawn, you should look to yourself as well."

They agreed, except for Thundercracker, who felt it was an insult that he had to act like a servant.

Splitting up, Slipstream led Acid Storm to the bridge where she knew everyone would be. She wondered if the others had successfully completed their mission. She and her group had left first, almost a megacycle before the other group was supposed to leave.

"What's he look like?" Acid Storm asked her. She hadn't forgotten that he had never seen him.

"You'll see." When she almost got there, she barely heard what they were talking about. Opening the door and walking in, she added to the conversation. "It's not just Cybertron we want. We want a home."

The others turned towards her as she made her entrance, Acid Storm following behind. She saw the trine standing together, and the coneheads just in front of her. Dirge and Thrust were holding back a black and yellow Seeker that Slipstream knew was one of the twins. She was confused as to why he was restrained and where the other one was, but kept quiet as she searched for the youngest. Shadow stood near them as well, and Downpour was sitting in a chair near the trine. His optics widened in curiosity at the new Seeker.

"Everybody who doesn't know, this is Acid Storm," Slipstream introduced.

"Sire?" Downpour asked in a quiet voice.

Acid Storm smiled at him. "And you're Downpour, right?" He walked forward towards his creation. The youngling jumped off of his chair and flew right into Acid Storm. He caught the smaller one, hugging him close. The love was short-lived when Downpour began to worry.

"Where's Carrier?" He asked, looking up at the Seeker holding him.

"I'm actually not sure where she went." He looked at Slipstream for help.

"She's looking after Skywarp in another room. You can take him to her if you like. I'm not sure which room, just check them all," Slipstream answered.

Downpour lit up when he heard this. "Yes!"

Acid Storm set him down and made to leave the bridge, Downpour trailing happily behind, when Sunstorm walked in. "Ah, what an affable meeting this is, Acid Storm. It's been too long."

The green Seeker smiled at the orange one. "It has, Sunstorm. I've tried returning to you and the others, but my skill with technology isn't equal to my strength, so every time I escaped I was caught again."

"Sunstorm, where were you?" Slipstream cut in. He was the third one Skywarp took back with him, but he wasn't there when she got back.

"I was in the back when I heard a pounding on a locked door. I opened it to find a young Seeker on his knees demanding to be let out, but he didn't seem to want to stand up. I left him in there, not wanting to displease any of you for making a mistake."

"Cloud," Shadow informed him. "He's online again."

"No thanks to you," her brother, Glyde, glared at her. Slipstream hadn't been quite sure what the reactions of the twins would be like when they met Shadow again and were brought here, but the fact that Glyde was being restrained and Cloud was locked up meant they probably weren't too ecstatic about the whole thing.

Thundercracker entered then, frowning at them all before taking a seat in the corner. "There, Dawn's taking care of Skywarp, the idiot."

Reminded of his carrier, Downpour tugged at his sire's servo. "Let's go see her."

Changing her mind, Slipstream headed for the door. "I'll take you. I'd like to have a word with her anyway."

Smiling, Acid Storm and Downpour followed her out, holding each others servo. Slipstream couldn't help but smile at the love they shared. It was nice to have a family that cared for each other. Slipstream and the other clones never had a family, so she had never had the pleasure that usually came with one. Pain would also come though, if one were to offline or hate you.

Passing a door, she heard banging behind it, just like Sunstorm said, so she knew that this would be Cloud. The next room was empty, no one in the berth. It was the third room that they checked that held the two they were looking for.

Skywarp was on the berth, still in stasis, while Dawn worked on him. She had some training as a medic, which didn't help them much after she was captured. When she heard the door open, she smiled at Acid Storm, then looked at Downpour, who was grinning.

"Carrier!" He yelled with glee, running forward. She bent down and picked him up, doing her best to cradle him as if he were a sparkling. "I've missed you."

"As have I, little one. It hurt so much to give you away, but I didn't want the Autobots to get you," Dawn admitted. She offlined her optics for a moment in complete serenity, but then remembered Skywarp.

Onlining her optics, she set Downpour down, giving most of her attention back to Skywarp. "I need to help him first, Downpour."

He didn't seem to care, as long as he was with his creators. Slipstream stood in the doorway, forgotten by all of the Seekers. "Excuse me," she interrupted the scene, reminding them of her presence. They all looked at her. "What all went on in the stockade over that stretch of time?"

Dawn sighed, probably having known that this moment would come. "Nothing. I told them nothing, and after a while they began to let up a bit, but the fact that we were Decepticons didn't help."

"I would have commed you," Acid Storm put in. "It would have been easy for me to fix my comm. link without them noticing, but I was afraid that they'd intercept the transmission. So I kept quiet, but I didn't put my technology skills in a dormant sleep either. I successfully escaped my cell many times, but they caught me each time."

"How many different Autobots did you see?" Slipstream wasn't sure how much help that would be, as there would always be more Autobots to help if they were attacked.

"Let's see," Acid Storm thought for a moment. "About...six? Seven, maybe? There were twins, a medic, a femme, three more mechs, so that makes seven, right? Yeah, that's how many I usually saw. Oh, and then there was the Prime, Sentinel, but all he did was bark at me about how much he hates us and wants to offline us and how much trouble we've been."

"What I want to know," Dawn started, looking into Skywarp's chasiss "is why Skywarp didn't just warp into the stockade and warp us out like he did last time. It would have been less harmful."

Slipstream, throughout everything that had happened, hadn't thought of Skywarp's reason for keeping quiet about that. "You're right, that is strange. He didn't say anything about it, and he would have done anything to have made the job easier and as painless as possible. But I thought that it would have been worse to warp into the building if it was heavily populated inside, so if we created a distraction outside, then we would have less to deal with. Skywarp never mentioned wanting to go straight into the stockade."

Skywarp twitched, but didn't online. "What happened to him?" Downpour asked, curious.

"He was shot by an Autobot in a vital area," Slipstream explained.

"So, this is it, right?" Acid Storm asked. "We're not going to wait around for another stellar cycle or something?"

Slipstream smirked. "Oh no. Once we're all prepared and well, then we'll let the real fun begin."

* * *

><p><strong>I'm sorry if this confused anyone at the beginning, but just to make this clear this chapter and the last chapter happen around the same time. The chapters will sometimes overlap each other as they switch POVs, so I'll try and make it as obvious as I can at the beginning so no one gets confused. Gah! I'm only done with eighteen chapters, and this is the fourteen! I just haven't had much time to work on nineteen, but if this rate keeps up, I'll catch up with myself and my uploads will be much slower. Because of this, I may shorten it to an upload every three days instead of every other day, so one more day. I'll try my best to work on it tomorrow, and if I feel like I can finish it before the uploads catch up, then'll still post every other day. If not, then that's why chapter fifteen is a day late.<strong>

**It feels a little lonely right here...**

**Thanks for reading! Next chapter we find out who those femmes are. And by the way, those five red and white Autobots that formed one large Autobot to help with the building was the Protectobots and Defensor, in case anyone guessed that.**


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter Fifteen**

Forward watched as the Seekers flew away and disappeared, still shocked at what had happened. Yes, the twins had been taken, but that was the least of his troubles. Looking down at the still figure he held in his lap, he was reminded of the fact that Nowli was offline forever. He couldn't believe it. He didn't want to believe it.

And that's when Jazz showed up along with Skyfire.

"Nice timing," Forward said sarcastically, not even looking at them.

"Whoa, what happened here?" Jazz asked, looking at the house. Forward followed is gaze and saw that the house he had shared with Nowli for quite some time had holes and dents in the side from the fight. The house that had originally been Nowli's...

"What happened?" Skyfire asked in fear when he got close enough to see the grey frame of Nowli in Forward's arms.

"She was shot by a Seeker," Forward explained after a small hesitation. He gripped her body tighter, pulling her into a hug and wrapping his arms around her. His best friend and lover was offline, and he hadn't been able to save her.

Skyfire put a servo on his shoulder. "We're so sorry for not getting here in time. There's been some commotion back there from more Seekers. Jazz and I didn't stay to fight them off when we heard more were attacking you."

Forward didn't say anything like "Its alright". It wasn't alright. There was never happiness from a loved one deactivating.

Jazz walked over, looking down at his depressed friend and offline student. Jazz wished there was something Heth could do, but no one could bring back the dead. And he knew not to bring back the old in favor of the new, so if there was some fragment of the Allspark out there, he wouldn't use it. That was what he was taught.

"They probably need help back at base," Forward thought out loud, quietly, but audible.

"Um, yes, they might. I'm sure they can handle it though," Skyfire promised.

"No, we should go help them. I don't want anyone else to offline because they were outnumbered."

Even if Forward hadn't meant it, that stung Skyfire and Jazz. It was a silent insult, a way of blaming them for her deactivation.

Jazz opened a comm. link and contacted Sentinel. It wasn't a private comm., so everyone else could hear him. "Sorry sir, but you're not going to like what I have to report," Jazz began.

Forward and Skyfire could hear the annoyed voice of their Prime on the other end. _"Save it for later. I'm on my way down to the stockade right now. I've gotten word that the Seekers - all of them - have escaped and I'm not happy about it. I'm calling a meeting up right now and you and the others better be there!"_

Forward sulked even more when he heard the other bad news. And now he had to go to a meeting with his team, so what would he do with Nowli's body?

"I gotcha, S.P. Be there in a 'click." Jazz ended the comm. He walked closer to Skyfire and Forward, addressing them. "I take it you all heard what he said."

There were nods. "I'll take us back then," Skyfire decided, about to transform. He did, becoming a large shuttle that would comfortably fit the both of them inside.

"Wait," Forward paused. Jazz, who had been keen on entering Skyfire, turned to look back at his friend. "I'll be right back."

Forward stood up, holding Nowli bridal-style. He took her back inside, grateful that the inside of the home wasn't damaged like the outside. He approached and entered her room, laying her on the berth inside. He took one last look at her still frame before exiting not only the room, but the house. He would come back to properly take care of her body, but duty calls.

Forward joined Jazz and the both of them relaxed inside of Skyfire as he flew them back to the base. There was commotion by a nearby building, but Forward didn't pay it any mind. They were all quiet, even after they landed. Jazz led the trio inside and they stayed that way until they reached their meeting room.

Everyone else was already there, plus a few others. The original team had been added to. There was the twins, Sideswipe and Sunstreaker, who both looked injured but functional, and Skyfire. Skyfire was just like Jetstorm and Jetfire when it came to his flight ability. They had taken the codes from Glyde and Cloud and tada! Skyfire in all of his glory!

Then there was the few others, who didn't belong on the team but were there anyway. Forward knew only one of them by sight, and that was Elita-1. He knew that she had her own team, and he guessed that was the three other femmes in the room. One of them, a blue femme, was seated next to Heth, who was examining her neck. The other two stood behind Elita-1, who was standing next to Sentinel, talking to him. There weren't enough seats for the three femmes standing, so it became apparent that they would continue to do so.

Forward took his usual seat on the other side of Heth, but she payed no mind to him. She continued to look at the femmes neck plating, and Forward could hear her conclusion when she finished.

"It's nothing too bad. You'll be fine, and I'll look after it later or you can go to the Med Bay now and have one of the other medics look after you. It won't stay a secret that Seekers trespassed here, so go ahead and say they strangled you." The femme nodded, but didn't leave the room. She thanked Heth, then went to stand next to her comrades, giving the seat to Skyfire instead. On her way over, Forward noticed that her arms were also damaged.

Forward looked around. Everyone was here who should be here, except for one. Her seat was empty, waiting for her. She wouldn't come, though.

Sentinel Prime finished his chat with Elita-1 and turned to address the whole lot of them. "Is everyone here? No? Someone's missing. Has Jazz returned - oh, you have. Who's missing?"

It was quiet, and Sentinel figured out for himself just by glancing around the room. "Where's Nowli? Did she stay home with the Seeker twins?"

"Sorry, but I told you you wouldn't dig what I had to say," Jazz said.

"Explain," Sentinel pushed, frowning.

"The Seeker twins are gone, and so is Nowli. I'm not entirely sure what happened, as I was late arriving there." He looked to Forward for assistance.

And help he gave, reluctantly. "The twins were taken by the Seekers that attacked us, but I'm not sure how much of it was by force. As for Nowli...she's offline. A Seeker did it during the fight."

Once again, it was quiet. The knowledge sunk in, and even some of the femmes who hadn't even known her looked down as a sign of respect.

Sentinel broke the silence by speaking. "Yes, well, I'm sorry to hear about that. We have to move on, however. I'm sure you've all noticed that I invited Elita-1 and her squad to this meeting as they did help in the conflict with the Seekers here. Well, most of them, anyway." He threw a quick glance at the blue femme. "Elita, you may introduce them if you like."

She didn't hesitate to begin. "Behind me, I have Chromia, Firestar, and Moonracer." She pointed them out in the order of blue, red, and green.

"Yes, anyway," Sentinel continued. "I have informed her about our situation and all of that. And now that we have proof that the Seekers haven't forgotten about us, I say we attack them before they attack us again!" He slammed his servo down on the table they all sat around.

"Can't we get repaired first?" Sideswipe asked, and one look at him and Forward knew he needed it. As did his brother, and others that were in the room.

"That'll be a problem," Heth concluded. "I obviously can't care to all of you in the time span Sentinel would approve of, and some of the other medics are looking over the bots that were caught when the building collapsed earlier. They still don't know how that happened, by the way."

Sentinel growled. "Well, there must be _some_ medics besides you who aren't busy and can help. But we'll get to that later! We don't know when they'll attack next, which they are going to do."

"You can't be too sure Sentinel," Elita-1 pointed out. "They waited a half a vorn from what you're telling me, so they can wait longer."

"Quiet, and let's just say for now that they _are_ going to attack soon. We'll need fliers. Unfortunately, Jetfire and Jetstorm are off planet for personal reasons, so we can't ask them."

"You act like that's your only option," Elita-1 mumbled.

He still heard her. "I know it's not my only option, as I am the one who thought of the idea. That is, if you're talking about what I'm talking about."

"Well, if you're talking about the five skilled Autobot fliers, who are also a gestalt, then yes, we are talking about the same thing."

"Once again, my idea." He smirked. "And of course I was talking about the Aerialbots, who else can fly besides Skyfire? It was my idea to take the codes to give to them."

"Optimus can fly."

Sentinel frowned at the mention of the Prime. Elita-1 smirked at his discomfort. Anyone could tell that she liked Optimus more than Sentinel, and Optimus was the one who helped her return to normal. It may have taken a long time for her to start trusting Autobots again, but here she was, in charge of her own squad of femmes.

"Well he's not here either." Sentinel looked away from her, moving to stand in front of her, causing her to step back rather than get pushed aside by the sheer size of him. Not that she couldn't hold her ground in a fight, but this wasn't the time nor place for that.

"Anyway, we need to go over the plan."

"Plan for what?" Heth asked.

"Plan for getting rid of those Seekers, that plan! Don't you bots listen? But that's not what I'm trying to talk to you about. We need to go over our advantages, skills. We've got two trained ninjabots, one a great spy, two trackers, two, well, just plain warriors, a flier, plus the other five if they join us, a team of femmes here who want in on it, and a medic who can't do anything besides healing."

"Hey, that's all I set out to be!" Heth defended, pointing at him.

He ignored her. "What we need to do is find out where the Seekers are hiding. Forward, where did they go after your little brawl earlier?"

Forward didn't want to remember that particular fight, but answered anyway. "They just flew away, apparently nowhere. I didn't see any ship, but they couldn't have flown into space like that and if there was a ship in space we would have noticed it."

"Unless it's undetectable," Mirage cut in. "Cloaked ships aren't impossible."

"True," Forward agreed, remembering when they had to deal with ships like that in the past.

"Well, someone find it!" Sentinel ordered. He turned to Elita-1. "In fact, why don't you four do that right now? While you're searching, everyone else can go and get some repairing done. And make it fast! We don't have much time left."

"Until what?" Elita-1 questioned.

"I don't know, but something will happen!" Sentinel barked at her. She rolled her optics before heading out, Chromia, Firestar, and Moonracer following her out. Forward briefly wondered if any of them would get the chance to have repairs done as well. Once they were out, Sentinel gave the rest of them all a look. "Well? What are you waiting for? Go and get to it if it hurts so bad!"

Everyone stood up, Heth rushing to get out first so she could make it to the med bay before anyone else did to prepare for them. Forward wasn't injured too badly, so he stayed behind with Jazz and Skyfire, both of whom hadn't fought in either skirmish. He decided that this may be the best time to go and figure out what he was going to do with Nowli's body.

"I'm going home for a bit, I'll be right back," Forward told the other two. Sentinel was gone as well, leaving to who knows where.

"I understand you, but that might not be the best option right now," Jazz disagreed.

"Why is that?" Forward asked him.

"Sentinel's already fragged off, you shouldn't test that temper anymore. I'm just saying, if you want to go back for any reason, do it quickly and get your aft back here before anything happens." Jazz gave him a warm smile, one Forward found it hard to return.

"I know. You're probably right though, I can go back at a later time. I'll go see if Heth needs any help." Forward was about to leave, but once again he was stopped by the power of convincing words.

"You'll only get in her way. There are other medics down there, so she'll be fine. Why don' you just go give yourself some alone time without leaving the building, dig it?" Jazz suggested.

Forward nodded, knowing Jazz to be right. "Understood." He left the room, walking down a corridor that led to somewhere that he didn't bother to care about. He found himself at the end of it, over looking the city of Iacon through a window. Looking down, he saw a family outside taking a walk. It saddened him once again to be reminded of what could have been.

He pressed his servos to the glass. He would give anything to go back and fix this, to go back to when it all started before he had even joined the Elite Guard. Back to when he was but a youngling, learning of the Decepticons' return and when Starscream was captured. He wished Starscream hadn't escaped, and his clones were never created. That thought made him remember that time a half of a vorn ago when he helped in the splitting of a sparkling from its carrier. Maybe he didn't want all the Seekers to be gone from this world, but others he did. The one who extinguished Nowli's spark would have to pay, of that he was sure.

"Forward," a gentle voice behind him said. He didn't know how long he had stood in front of that window thinking, but when he reluctantly turned away from it he saw Skyfire.

"Yes?" Forward pushed, waiting for the question.

"What are you thinking?"

Forward didn't like the question. To him, it was too much to ask of him to reveal personal thoughts. Apparently, though, his silence answered the question itself.

"You're thinking of revenge, aren't you?" Skyfire guessed, sure of it.

Forward hesitated, then admitted it with a nod.

"Don't, you know that whatever happens in the future can't change the past, but only the future itself. Don't forget, but move on with hope of a better cycle. One will come, I promise you that."

Once again, Forward nodded, deciding to go down to the med bay after all to see how the progress was coming. Skyfire didn't follow him, having orders of his own to go and find the Aerialbots. Forward was okay with the silence; it gave him more time to think. And think he did as he headed down to his destination. Before he knew it, there he was, standing in the crowded place that was the med bay. He saw patients from the problem earlier leaving, some barely injured. Others were far worse, their families staying with them if a long stay was promised.

He was standing in the waiting room with other bots, most of them family members of those being worked on. Some of them looked anxious, and Forward could relate with them about how they felt. Of course, with him, the anxiety only lasted a nanoclick at most. And Forward waited there, watching medics enter and exit, discharging patients, and seeing the gleeful expressions friends and loved ones wore when they found out that someone they cared about was okay.

"You're all set," a mech medic told a femme as she was discharged. Forward found himself staring at her, something keeping his gaze there but he couldn't place what. She was purple and yellow with grey skin plating and an oddly spiked up helm. She had strange green optics, and Forward couldn't understand what that meant. Her frame was similar to Nowli's, leaving Forward to assume that she had the same protoform mold as Nowli. She caught his gaze and gave him a quick wave before leaving the Med Bay.

Forward still couldn't understand it. There had been some sort of familiarity with that femme, but he just could not remember ever seeing her before. He was sure that he'd see her again eventually, as fate always seemed to work that way. Forward was still staring at the door when Heth approached him.

"What are you doing here? You have some minor injuries, but don't push Sentinel into waiting any longer than he has to. It won't give you any relief, trust me," Heth said as she stood in front of where he was sitting. He looked up at her.

"I'm just here to be here, not to get a repair," Forward explained. "How are the others?"

"They'll be fine. Don't worry to hard, and remember, we're here for you if you need anything. Unless, of course, you want like a cube of energon and you're requesting it from a disabled bot. That's where the line is drawn." She smiled at him in humor, and he couldn't help but smile back at his friend.

"Thanks."

That's when the doors opened and Chromia burst in. "The ship's been found! Everyone report to the usual place immediately!"

With that said, Heth returned to her injured partners to spread the news, Forward going back to the meeting place like ordered. It seemed like that orbital cycle was about to get a whole lot more interesting.

* * *

><p><strong>I almost didn't upload this chapter today. I'm almost done with nineteen, so I decided that, because it was a finished chapter, to just go ahead and upload fifteen. I also didn't want to make anyone wait any longer than necessary, and I know from experience that sometimes I just can't wait for a new chapter. I'll try my best not to fall behind schedule for the rest of this story! And yep, I put the femmes in this. I wanted to use Elita-1 again, so why not add in Firestar, Chromia, and Moonracer? I also couldn't resist this opportunity to use the Aerialbots.<strong>

**Prowls-little-angel: Yep, Skywarp got his moment of bravery! As for the spy, don't say anything in the reviews if you figure it out! At least, not the name! You probably already know that, but just in case. I hope you and everyone else liked this chapter and the others.**

**Thanks for reads and reviews! You know, a lot of the time authors also can't wait for a certain chapter to be uploaded, and I'm really looking forward to the next chapter.**


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter Sixteen**

"Is everything clear to everyone?" Slipstream asked the other Seekers. All of them, except for Shadow, were going. Shadow was to stay here and try to calm down the twins. Dawn had looked over Cloud, who wasn't too badly injured, so they would be fine. Skywarp was also not going, but the only thing that they'd miss from him would be his teleportation. Not that he was a horrible fighter, just not an excited fighter in general.

"Understood," Acid Storm said with a smile. After spending a half of a vorn in the Stockades, Slipstream had no doubt that he and Dawn would be up to this. Even Downpour was going with them, but that was necessary for the plan to work.

"Why do we even have to do all of this?" Thundercracker asked. "I mean, just one look at me and they'll be begging for mercy." He smirked at the thought.

"How many times do I have to tell you?" Slipstream argued. "You aren't as great as you think you are! The sooner you realize this, the better. Honestly, I sometimes wish Starscream was here instead of some of you." She gave a look to Dirge and Jet.

"I'm ready for some action!" Thrust announced.

"Me too!" Streamline concurred. "And I've been waiting longer than you have, so let me have first kill."

"Let's just go already, and then we'll decide when we get there," Thrust decided. Streamline nodded, enthusiasm higher than ever.

"Alright, Spinshade, you lead," Slipstream ordered. The mech Seeker nodded, moving toward the exit to the ship, which was hovering over Cybertron. He opened the door, the ramp descending but not reaching anything. Without hesitation, he transformed, and one by one, they followed. Spinshade was at the point, Eclipse on one side and Streamline on the other. Directly behind Spinshade was Slipstream. The coneheads were above her, Thundercracker and Skyliner below. Jet and Sunstorm were behind her, and below him was Dawn, Downpour, and Acid Storm.

They flew overhead, heading right for the place that had held Acid Storm and Dawn captive for so long. Autobots were already outside, waiting for them. Slipstream knew to give the command now. "Split!"

The bonded pair and their sparkling flew higher than them instead of diving down like the coneheads were. Slipstream joined Skyliner and Thundercracker and headed for the top of the building, planning to sneak inside for one last thing that Slipstream had thought of. The trine headed straight for the Autobots in an assault, followed by the coneheads.

They were in for a shock, however, when they saw fliers heading towards them. They were firing at them, so they were obviously Autobots. Slipstream hadn't thought of flying Autobots getting in the way. Fortunately, the trine seemed prepared for a change and immediately changed course to fight with the five Autobots. No one else strayed from their course, and Slipstream and the other two managed to land on the top of the building without being under fire. Before entering, however, Slipstream wanted to watch. She knew cover would have to be taken soon, but she was curious.

It appeared that most of the Autobots were already outside, so it was safe for one part of the plan to move into action. Acid Storm, Dawn, and Downpour transformed in the sky. High above the rest, they did what they were created to do. Just one of them couldn't do this without the other two, which is why it had taken so long to be used.

And the red clouds appeared.

The three fired their null rays at the sinister looking clouds, and Slipstream quickly smashed a rooftop window, allowing Thundercracker and Skyliner to jump in first before she did. Once inside, she continued to watch the wonder that was going on outside. The effect on the clouds was almost immediate, and she hoped that the others had found a safe place to shelter themselves. The only ones not affected by the havoc would be the rainmakers themselves - Acid Storm, Dawn, and Downpour.

Slipstream heard a few yells as the acid rain began to pour, and thankfully none of them sounded like Megatron on helium. She did hear what sounded like Eclipse, however, but didn't really care much about what happened to her. Skyliner might, but that also didn't matter to her.

They made their way back down to the stockades, this time easier than the last. That probably had something to do with the mayhem going on outside. When they reached the stockades, it was also deprived of guards.

"This is fortunate," Skyliner commented.

"It is. This is almost too easy," Slipstream remarked. Still, they continued past the cell that Acid Storm had been in and down another hall full of cells. They found the one they were looking for easily enough.

"Jou look familiar," the three-faced triple-changer thought out loud when he saw the three Seekers. His face was that of Icy, the calm and collective one of the three.

"I'm Slipstream, one of Starscream's clones. So is Thundercracker here." She jerked her head at said Seeker.

Icy seemed almost surprised to hear that name. "Starscream, huh? Zat explains ze familiarity. Vhat do you vant?" He gave her a critical look from the berth he sat on.

"You want to get out of here?" She asked in a promising voice. "We'll let you out as long as you help us take the land that rightfully belongs to us."

Blitzwing cocked his head to the side. "Vhat about Lugnut and ze other Decepticons?"

"Lugnut won't help now that Megatron is offline. I also know absolutely nothing about the others, so it'll just have to be you for now. I don't want another Starscream or Lugnut."

Blitzwing appeared to be in thought for a moment, but eventually he nodded. "Eet's depressing in here."

Thundercracker shot the panel, deactivating the blue wall that was keeping him in there. Blitzwing stood, walking over and out, then looked both ways before heading off in the opposite direction than they had came in. "I vant to see zee bodies first."

"What bodies?" Slipstream asked, suddenly curious as she and the others followed him down into a deeper part of the building that looked like it was usually avoided. It didn't appear too welcoming.

Just then, a trembling boom was heard and felt from outside. Blitzwing turned around, his face completely black except for his optics and crazy shaped mouth. "Oo! I vant to make booms!"

"Blitzwing!" Slipstream called for his attention, which only made him change into his hothead mode.

"Vhat? After being in zat cell for so long, is it wrong to vant to do something?"

"What bodies!" Slipstream yelled over his outraged defiance.

Luckily, Icy returned. "Oh, zat. It vas two Seekers a long time ago, but I vas curious as to vhere zey vere being taken."

Slipstream frowned as they continued walking into a darker part. "That would be Jetstream and Streaker, and they're offline."

A door opened in front of them without needing a code, revealing to them a dimly lit room. Along all the walls were large drawers with labels. Nothing else was there. Curious, Slipstream stepped into the room and pulled open a random drawer. Inside, a grey body was laying on the cold metal with a smaller box placed by the helm. Slipstream didn't know who it was, and also didn't care. What mattered to her was the fact that they had stumbled across a room full of offline bots.

Skyliner pulled open another. "It's a Seeker." Slipstream was over in an astrosecond, looking down at the still femme frame of the Seeker. It was impossible to tell what colors she used to have, as there were none now, but that didn't matter. She closed the drawer just enough to read the label on the outside.

Jetstream.

"Quick, find Streaker!" She ordered. She still had the fragment that she could use to bring them both back online, and she did want to. Then she remembered the small box in the drawer. She pulled it back out all of the way and took the box into her servos. Opening it up, she realised with a shock what was inside.

"I found him," Thundercracker stated, not far from Slipstream. Slipstream wasn't paying attention. Instead, she was removing the content of the box and also removing the helm on Jetstream's head. She placed the personality component where it belonged and closed the helm back onto the head, waiting patiently. Before getting a response, she moved to do the same to Streaker. Once she had completed, she heard the sound of a bot onlining, looking back at her clone.

There she was, a color mixture of Starscream and Slipstream with the magenta and teal armor and grey skin plating. She was clutching at her helm as if she had a processor ache. Streaker was also onlining, his brighter colors returning as well.

"What the?" Jetstream asked, taking notice of her surroundings. Then she spotted Slipstream. "Slippers!" She yelled, jumping out of her drawer and lunging at Slipstream.

"Don't call me that!" Slipstream retorted, but Jetstream didn't care. Ah yes, Jetstream. A very enthusiastic femme that seemed to always be happy about something. She had her serious moments, and this obviously wasn't one of them.

"Jetstream? Where are we?" Streaker asked, sitting up and looking around. "Skyliner as well? And Slipstream and Thundercracker?" He seemed very confused.

"Streaker!" Jetstream exclaimed, releasing Slipstream and giving a hug to her bonded. "It feels like it's been forever since I've seen you. Oh! I remember now! That Prime bot said he was putting us in detention because they weren't allowed to offline innocent bots. Apparently he found a loop-hole though." She looked back at the four other bots in the room besides her and Streaker. Something else seemed to click in her processor. "Where are the twins? Shadow?"

"Safe, for now," Slipstream answered. "We thought you two were offline, which is what they told everybody." It was good to see them online again, she had to admit. Not out loud, though.

"Who are you?" Streaker asked Blitzwing.

"I am Blitzwing," Icy answered. "I am a triple-changer as vell."

"Wow, that's so cool!" Jetstream complimented. "But, as much as I'd like to chat for megacycles about it, I'd also love to see my creations again. Tell me, how long were we in detention?" Her gaze shifted among the three Seekers as Streaker got out of the drawer, closing it with his pede.

"A very long time, check your chronometres. And you can see them in a moment, but now we're at war." Slipstream mentally cursed herself. "We're behind schedule as it is, so let's go!" She waved for them to follow, and no one hesitated as they left the detention room and ran back down the halls that had led them there in the first place. Slipstream knew full well that she could have used the fragment on any one of those bots, or put their personallity component back in, but she chose not to. She didn't know who any of those bots were, except maybe Lugnut, who was somewhere in there. She didn't have use for that big lunk of metal, as he was only loyal to the offline Megatron.

They found their way back to the stockades and, to the best of their ability, retraced their steps back up to the roof. They made it, taking a few wrong turns here and there and running into poorly equipped Autobots that Thundercracker easily took care of. They didn't speak much, except for Blitzwing, who seemed to talk to himself sometimes. When they got to the whole in the roof, Slipstream could tell that the rain had stopped. Seeing that it was safe to go outside, she flew out, bracing herself for the worst.

It was a mess.

Nearby buildings were scarred from the fight that had gone down, and some fights were still in action. Wounded bodies of Autobots and Seekers alike were scattered, some, like Eclipse, too injured to get back up. Others, like Dirge, were standing there, clutching an arm or something like that. Some Autobots were offline, but Slipstream couldn't recognize any of the deactivated ones as those that she was familiar with. A rather huge Autobot was flying around, swiping and firing at Streamline and Spinshade. Sunstorm also seemed uninjured, firing on the ground and smiling all the while. Of course he was smiling.

Acid Storm was also still up, fighting some of the Autobots from earlier during the escape. Dawn was not too far from him, Downpour right beside her as she fended off against someone who's fighting style was that of a ninja-bot.

"What is going on?" Jetstream asked, quite bewildered at the scene in front of her. Slipstream just then seemed to notice how her and Streaker's optics were still purple, never becoming red.

"Jetstream," Slipstream began as Thundercracker, Skyliner, and Blitzwing took to the skies to join in on the action. She didn't look directly at her clone, instead watching out for any Autobots who had noticed her. "Remember the initial plan we told you and Streaker when you were created?"

"...Yes. Is that what this is? The conquering of Cybertron?" Slipstream couldn't tell if she was irritated or not.

"Yes, so are you two going to help or not?" She spared a glance at a torn looking Streaker and a stoic faced Jetstream.

"Sure, why not?" Jetstream decided, and Streaker joined her as they flew out and into the air. Slipstream went lower, heading straight for a surprised Sentinel.

"That can't be!" He exclaimed, staring up at the two Seekers who had been in detention for oh so long. "They should be locked up!" He turned just in time to deflect a shot from Slipstream with his shield. He pointed his lance at her. "You!"

Slipstream fired at him with her null ray, dodging shots from the yellow and black mech they had fought earlier. None of her shots were reaching him, to her disappointment. She tried, none the less, and eventually a blow hit her and she flew backwards, heading for a building as she escaped another shot that just missed her.

It was then that she noticed the grey Seeker form beneath her. Upon first glance, all she could tell was that it was a Seeker and a femme. Because of the lack of color, who it was remained a mystery. She hoped it wasn't Jetstream, as she had just brought that Seeker back. A quick look around gave her the satisfaction that it was not Dawn. That same glance told her where exactly she was, and connecting that knowledge to the scene she saw when she came out of the building...

The only more confirmation she needed was the outraged look on Spinshade's face as he fought with a red and white jet. She also realized that the large bot from earlier was gone and five new jets were in its place, once of which was the one Spinshade was fighting.

She got caught up in the fighting once more, shooting forward and engaging the yellow mech in combat once again. As they exchanged blows, Slipstream reminded herself that she had the fragment and could bring Eclipse back if she chose to. Then again, Slipstream didn't really like Eclipse, and Eclipse didn't seem to like anyone besides her trine. It was also up for debate whether or not the Allspark fragment would work like it did on clones. Clones were empty shells and protoforms before getting the spark piece, but if she gave part of it to Eclipse, would that make her a clone instead?

Out of the corner of her vision, she saw one of the jets fall and hit the ground, not grey, but unmoving. She looked up to see a gleeful Streamline flying in circles to show his amusement. Another jet fired at him, causing him to refocus his goal and start fighting again.

Jetstream and Streaker were now attacking Sentinel Prime together. They felt the need to gain some sort of revenge for what the Prime had done to their family. They also both had the aching desire to see their creations as soon as possible.

Spinshade, who had just given his opponent a bad blow to the wing, was now diving downwards, firing at an already wounded mint-green femme. She saw him coming, however, and raised two burned arms and aimed her blaster at him, shooting him right in the left wing. It may have hit his face, but he had swerved just in time to escape that fate.

And it was then, when Thundercracker spun out of control and hit a building and Ultra Magnus himself entered the fray, that Slipstream ordered for a temporary retreat. They needed time to count their losses and heal the wounded. So, with some of them supporting others, they fell back and headed for the cloaked ship. Well, they headed to where they thought it was, and Slipstream commed Shadow to have her reveal it long enough for them to enter it. Then they would have to cloak it and move it.

Once back inside the ship, the first thing Slipstream saw was Shadow, who was at the door and waiting for the news. Shadow saw Blitzwing, who had come back with them, and gave him a curious look. Then she saw Streaker, and her one optic grew in shock.

"Sire?" She asked, but before she got an answer from him, her optic moved to Jetstream, who had also just noticed her.

"Shadow!" Jetstream called out, embracing her youngest with a smile. "You've really grown, haven't you?"

But Shadow couldn't respond to that, and Slipstream decided to leave them to themselves, ordering all others to follow her to the bridge. The only other exception was to follow Dawn to their makeshift med bay for repairs. Which, would practically be everyone at some point. However, the med bay wasn't that big, so most of them ended up following Slipstream to the bridge. Once there, she turned to face the remaining team.

Before her stood Spinshade, Streamline, Sunstorm, and Blitzwing in almost perfect condition. Skyliner was scratched, despite hardly fighting, and Ramjet was clutching his helm like he had a bad processor ache. Dirge was holding a dislocated arm, but it wasn't not connected. Thrust's wings were bent, and one of Ramjet's was as well. Jet was hugging himself, shielding his chassis from view. Thundercracker wasn't there, and neither were the rainmakers. Skywarp was also absent, but that didn't bother Slipstream as much.

"Frag!" Spinshade yelled, turning around and slamming his servo into the wall, denting it. He hadn't been able to retrieve Eclipse's fallen body while retreating. No one had.

"How did it happen?" Slipstream asked, even though she knew it was a tough question to ask.

"That little glitch shot her right in the spark, that's how!" He yelled at Slipstream, glaring at her. "And it doesn't help when you think about the fact that she also fell prey to the acid rain." He looked around, searching for the rainmakers, but didn't see them.

Streamline was also upset, but he kept his cool, which was oddly surprising. Usually it was Spinshade that kept face and didn't show much emotion. Streamline was the immature one. Eclipse was similar to Spinshade personality wise, and apparently they were at least friends. It was a wonder to Slipstream how Eclipse had ever made a friend, even two, when she was cold to everybody else.

"So, vhat now?" Blitzwing asked.

* * *

><p><strong>Yeah, I'm a number of hours late on this, but I was busy. So, did anyone expect them to be the rainmakers? Someone probably figured it out, or everyone, I don't know. I've been wanting to put up this chapter ever since I started writing the seventh one. Originally, Dawn wasn't going to be a rainmaker and neither was Downpour, but then I decided that it would be fun to put in the rainmakers. Dawn's name doesn't fit as much as the other two, but that's because she was originally Dawn and I didn't want to change it. She also was already yellow, but more evenly distributed with the pink. So I only changed her to all yellow and made the red lines pink to match her name. I also kept the black helm some shade of violet, I can't remember which one I used, because that also goes in with the name. So, technically, Dawn and Downpour aren't OCs, but since they never had a name in any show, or personallity, they could be considered OCs. I really wanted to write with Jetstream and Streaker too, so I brought them back. Blitzwing's also fun, and he's part jet. Yeah, I killed Eclipse, but someone's going to die eventually so, might as well kill off the one no one important in the story really cares about. (Except Streamline and Spinshade)<strong>

**If anyone had guessed anything about Acid Storm, Dawn, and Downpour, I'm curious to hear what it was. Wrong or right, the secret's out, so if you review, you may tell me what you thought. I want to know how obvious I made it. The spy's still a secret though!**

**Thanks for reads! I got so many writer's blocks while writing seventeen, so I hope you like it!**


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter Seventeen**

Shadow watched as the Seekers departed. She wanted to go and pay Sentinel back so bad for what he'd done, but she reluctantly remained on board. It took her a breem of standing around to remember that she wasn't alone and that this would be the perfect time to have a talk with her twin brothers. Cloud had been looked after by Dawn, and Glyde had been forced into the room with Cloud like a prisoner. She shivered at the thought, but it was, in a way, true.

She found the room they were being held in. After a moment of hesitation, she entered the code and the door opened. There was one berth in the room, and both of them were sitting on it, leaning against the wall it was positioned by. When Glyde saw her, he glared at her. Cloud's expression remained stoic, but Shadow didn't like that any better.

She walked in, removing her mask for the first time in a while. After an awkward silence, she spoke. "I'm...sorry. For hurting Cloud, and helping them take you both back to the ship." She looked at Cloud and Glyde in turn, waiting for a response.

"How?" Cloud asked. It wasn't the question Shadow had been anticipating. "How did you end up like this?"

She paused for a moment, then began. "You two were practically kidnapped from us. I formed a hatred at the Autobots for doing that. And then they took our creators as well. Our sire tried to save me by reformatting my frame to look less like a Seeker, but it didn't work. And in the end, I ran away to avoid being taken as well by them when they took our creators.

"I continued to live like that for, well I don't know how long. At least a stellar cycle. And that Prime jerk told us that you two were taken for experiments, so I thought all four of you were dead. When Sunstorm, the orange Seeker, found me and brought me to live with another Seeker family, I was happy. I was sure that meant I could live peacefully again, but then again, I'll never be at peace until revenge is properly taken against the Autobots." She glared at the ground.

"Well, not all of the Autobots are bad," Glyde admitted, looking anywhere but at Shadow. "Some are sort of...kind." It wasn't in his nature to compliment those who had helped ruin a part of his life, so this was awkward for him.

"You've been with them for too long," Shadow told him. "Look at the bigger picture."

"No, _you_ look at the bigger picture," Glyde countered. "There is only one Autobot that really caused everything you hate so much, so don't take it out on all of them!" His voice rose at this. "You need to lighten up, Shadow. Stop thinking with a one-track mind."

She glared at him. "Why can't you understand it from my point of view?" She looked from Glyde to Cloud and back again.

"Because your point of view is limited from propaganda given to you by those other Seekers," Cloud pointed out.

"How do you know your information isn't the limited one?" She asked, folding her arms across her chasis.

"Because we've lived on both sides, that's why. I don't think it'd be easy for the Autobots to lie to us for after all of that time we spent with them." He offlined his optics and shook his head. "Just forget it. You obviously aren't going to do anything different than you already are, so it's no use trying."

Glyde looked shocked at these words. "What? No, I'm not leaving it like this! I'm not going to end a conversation with our sister, who we haven't had a conversation with in so long, like this. Not until she realizes her mistakes."

"She won't though."

"I won't," Shadow agreed with Cloud, glad that someone saw that. Still, she also didn't want to end a conversation like this on such a bad note.

"I'm not saying we ignore each other for the rest of our lives or continue to hate each other either," Cloud started to explain, causing Glyde to look confused. "Just accept that we're on different sides. Now, who wants to talk about something else? What have you been doing all of this time, Shadow? After you joined with the other Seekers, of course. What's it like?" He tried to appear interested to lighten the mood, succeeding in that at least.

Shadow gave him an odd look, but answered the question. "Well, I lived on this moon in another galaxy. I'm the second youngest here, the youngest being Downpour. He's smaller than me and nearly all blue. He's just like us, born from two clones. You might know the clones, as they were taken by the Autobots before we left. A green one and a yellow one. He was so sad for so long when living away from them. He like to be around Sunstorm and Slipstream. Acid Storm, his sire, is the clone of Sunstorm, and Dawn, his carrier, is the clone of Slipstream. Our carrier is also Slipstream's clone, so we're kind of like Downpour's cousins.

"And there are three Seeker's who aren't clones, but I only like Streamline. Eclipse is mean to me and Spinshade always looks down on me. At least Streamline is fun to be around, no matter how immature he is. I don't always agree with that trine, but there's nothing to do about that.

"All in all, you get used to living around these people. Thundercracker and Dirge are always fighting, Jet is just a complete nuisance, Skywarp is most of the time useless, and Thrust is all brawn and no brain sometimes. Ramjet is harder to get used to, 'cause everything he says is a lie. I wonder if even he has trouble speaking sometimes. Skyliner ignores everyone for the most part, and I usually don't even know where he is. That's fine, he likes it that way. As long as you leave him alone, he'll leave you alone. He's a loner. Slipstream takes charge most of the time, but isn't a tyrant about it. Ever since the trine joined us, she likes to take their opinion into consideration more than the rest of us. Especially Spinshade, who is the trine leader."

She looked at Glyde, who looked bored at her descriptions. "That's nice and all, but do you expect us to stay here with you?" He asked her, the obvious answer in his mind being no.

"Of course, you wouldn't want to leave me again, would you?" She pouted, but Glyde didn't buy into it. She sighed. "Look, there's no way the Autobots will ever except you. So, with that fact out there, it's best to be with your own kind. Besides, we're family." She gave both of them another sad look, but still neither felt pity.

"We've lived with Autobots who do except us," Cloud pointed out. "Once again, let's have a normal conversation." His stern plea went ignored with Glyde's next question.

"Why did you go through the trouble of kidnapping us anyway? How are we supposed to help you? Did you think we were actually trained or anything?" He chuckled with a smirk that read "as if".

"Well, I thought, and not just me, we thought that you would join us. You have reason to anyway. I can't believe you don't want some form of revenge after what happened."

"I did," Glyde told her, causing her to look at him with wide optics. He held up a digit. "Ah, key word: did. Back in that cell all alone for cycles again and again. I even planned the death of one of the Autobots. Then there was always that one orbital cycle when I was allowed to be with Cloud. I was reminded of how wrong it was to kill just by looking at his disapproving look when he saw me."

"You planned their death, and now you want to side with them?" Shadow questioned his logic in that. "And how did Cloud know you were thinking about that anyway?" She looked at Cloud, expecting him to answer.

Answer he did. "I didn't. However, through the twin bond, I could tell what kind of mood he was in. All of those days I didn't see him, I could feel something terrible on his end. It even scared me some of the time." He looked at Glyde with a blank face, then back at Shadow.

"And pit no," Glyde answered. "I would never side with those rust buckets." He saw Shadow's confused stare and corrected himself. "I prefer to take the neutral side in this. That is, after all, how I was raised for part of my life. Don't ask me the question 'if you had to choose' because I'm not answering that."

"I would side with the Autobots, but I'd rather stay neutral. Autobots still cause harm, however justified it is." Cloud informed them, ignoring his own request to keep the conversation away from subjects like this. "Even though, on some level, I do believe there was no real reason to imprison us or murder our parents. I don't forgive that Prime for that. Still, the Seekers you're with are no better. Conquer and conquest...honestly, what is the point? Why can't we all live happily together? Who cares what type you are or who's in charge, we're all part of the same planet. The only time it matters to me is when the current one in charge really is horrible, a tyrant. And that's how the Seekers, whoever is in charge of them, will act."

"As long as I can live where Autobots aren't looking down on me, I'll be fine. In fact, it may just be better if they saw me as superior for a change." She smiled at the idea, looking through the doorway for no apparent reason.

Glyde jumped off the berth he sat on. "Well, I need to refuel. If you don't mind, you should feed the prisoner." She looked down on his sister, an impatient frown on his face.

She narrowed her optics at him. "Fine, I'll get you something. Just wait here." Leaving the room, she shut the door, making sure it would only be opened by the outside code. The walk to the room where the cubes were made wasn't a long one, but she pretended it was so she could think to herself.

What exactly was she trying to accomplish? Was this all just for revenge? What was her profit in this? These questions echoed in her mind, and she tried to figure them out. Yes, it was plainly obvious that she was in this for revenge. That couldn't be the only thing, right? She had always wanted to live in a better place, but would she gain one from this? The odds of them taking over weren't in their favor, considering the odds, but they had the firepower and strength. The Decepticons had always been stronger than the Autobots in her opinion. It took a lot to take down Megatron, after all. If they lost, though, her life would probably only get worse. However, if it all payed off, she was sure it would all turn out for the best.

Still, living at odds with her only remaining family, sans the other Seekers that are technically her family, wasn't the way she wanted to live. She was nearing the age that would allow her a fully grown femme Seeker body, so she could live on her own. She was independent enough, after all. It had never really crossed her mind about living with a partner. She had never been the romantic type, with so much else going on. Then again, there wasn't any Seeker she knew of that was her age. Even Downpour was much younger than her. Of course, there were actually Seekers out there that weren't clones, the trine had proven that. Maybe she could meet someone out there. Would it bother her if he wasn't a Seeker?

Shadow decided to save that train of thought for a more appropriate time. Instead, she wondered what her creators would say about the real current conflict. Would they side with her or the twins? It didn't really matter. Whatever their opinion was, it was sealed into a forever silence. Agreeing with that at least, she decided to get the energon. Turning on the converter she patiently waited for the cubes to fill. Going back into a tense room with her brothers wasn't something she looked forward to. It had to be done, unfortunately.

Waiting three breems was what she decided to do, taking extra long to return to the small room. To pass the time and delay the inevitable, she visited Skywarp. He was still in stasis, so, disappointed, she left him. Delaying slightly longer, standing outside the dreaded room, she held the cubes in her servos. Venting a sigh, she finally entered the makeshift prison. The two were just where she left them, except Glyde was back on the berth. They look like they had just stopped talking.

Holding out her servos, she waited for them to take the cubes. They both did, staying completely silent. Finally, after a couple nanoclicks of awkward silence, Glyde joked. "What took you so long? I could have offlined in the time you took. No, scratch that, I could have offlined Cloud, made a dramatic speech about how evil I am, done a little dance, then offlined myself after tearing apart Cloud's then useless body." Cloud chuckled, and Shadow couldn't help but join in on that.

"I didn't exactly want to return, sorry." She didn't know why it was so easy to apologize. Maybe because it wasn't that big of a thing. Before anything else could be shared, however, she got a call on her comm. link from Slipstream telling her to reveal the ship to let them on. "I have to go, they're back."

Not waiting for anything else, she once again left the room with the door locked, then found the way to the bridge to do as requested. It was an easy procedure, and after leaving it visible for a reasonable amount of time, she cloaked it once again and left to find the Seekers. What she saw when she got there made her circuit freeze in shock.

"Sire?" She asked, but before she got an answer from him, her optic moved to Jetstream, who had also just noticed her.

"Shadow!" Jetstream called out, embracing her youngest with a smile. "You've really grown, haven't you?" Shadow was too amazed to answer that, processing exactly what was going on.

Her creators.

Right here.

Online.

"Y-you're supposed to be offline," Shadow told them as the others all left to their own destinations. Now it was just the three of them.

Jetstream gave her youngest a large grin, releasing her to explain. "Not offline, just in detention. Slipstream brought us back though! Isn't that great?" She was obviously happy about the whole situation, and on the inside so was Shadow. Shadow didn't show it, though, deciding to act surprised. Of course, it's not really an act when you're not acting.

"Where are your brothers?" Streaker asked, looking around as if he expected them to just pop out of nowhere. "Slipstream told us they were here with you as well. It would be nice to see all of you again."

Shadow shook herself out of shock and answered the question. "In a room down there. Follow me then." She led the pair down a narrow hallway, stopping outside the room she had just left. Punching in the code, she stepped into the small room as soon as the door slid open, waiting for the response they were sure to get.

Cloud and Glyde were on the berth, unsurprisingly, and were wide-opticed when they spotted Jetstream and Streaker. Cloud looked like he couldn't speak, but Glyde had already jumped off the berth and approached the Seekers standing in the doorway. "No way."

Streaker gave the middle child a warm smile, but Jetstream was being the enthusiastic bot she'd always be. "How long has it been? Too long if you ask me," she stated, pulling Glyde into a hug similar to the one she'd given Shadow.

Cloud recovered, but didn't leave the berth. "We were told you were offline. Therefore, either they lied to us, or I'm in recharge right now."

Jetstream let go of Glyde and sat herself next to the oldest child, slinging an arm around his shoulders in a one-arm hug. "We're online, and always have been. Just locked away in a silent darkness for too long."

"You're not going to leave again, are you?" Glyde asked, worry evident on his face. After all of the anger he had been slinging at her, it was a change to Shadow to see another side of him. She had stayed quiet, leaning against the wall in the back.

Streaker stepped into the small room completely, putting his servos on Glyde's shoulder. "Don't worry about that, we'll stay with all of you." As much as Shadow did like that fact, she didn't like it as well. Whenever anyone had a moment like this, something bad had to balance it out. It never turns out right. She had this sickening feeling that one of them might be deactivated.

"Are you...working with _them_?" Cloud asked his creators. He almost looked like he was pleading with them not to be, to be neutral still.

"Yep, always have been," Jetstream answered a little too cheerfully. "We were created to be like this. We pretended to be neutral on Cybertron to keep suspicion away from us, but that didn't work, now did it?" She chuckled. "Don't take that the wrong way, I was very depressed when you two were taken away. We do care about you, but we also knew that we had failed our purpose. You all are our other purpose for staying online, however. Still, we'll still help the other Seekers as we take control of our home world. We do deserve to live somewhere, after all. We just needed more Seekers, so we had you three, and more clones were made."

Shadow felt hurt when she heard that. "We were only created because it was your duty?" She asked them, silently pleading with herself that it wasn't true. "Not because you wanted us? Was there any love?"

Jetstream looked taken aback, so Streaker answered her question. "Of course not. Yeah it was our duty, but we've always loved all of you. Don't ever think otherwise." He smiled at her, and she believed him. She _wanted_ to believe him, so that didn't leave room for doubt. She turned to Cloud, who seemed upset by something. It was probably because he was such a pacifist that the thought of their creators being Decepticons all along upset him. Shadow was sure she would be upset if their creators were Autobots after all. That was just a thought, it was never going to happen.

"It's nice to be together again!" Jetstream cheered, clasping her servos together with glee. Shadow just wondered how long it would even last. She looked at Shadow, then asked "What happened to your optic?"

Instinctively, Shadow put a servo on her helm where it covered her optic. "At one point when I was fleeing from Autobots, I ran into Sentinel. He had a lance, and when he swung it at me I dodged in the wrong direction and it jabbed right into my optic, shattering the lens. I never got it repaired though. I didn't want an Autobot to repair it. So I decided to cover it instead by getting a new helm. My helm already was different, but I wanted it to cover that optic.

"It was hard to find someone to help me. However, soon after the incident, I came across an illegal club. Not like a party club where you drink high grade, but a team-like club. They were rebels, against the laws but not necessarily Decepticons. I joined them for some time, finding shelter, energon, and above all, something similar. All of them had reasons to dislike the way the Autobots did things, and I did too. Yeah, they were harsh on me for being a kid, but I'll never regret joining. One of them was able to fix my helm into a shape that covered my optic. He didn't have a lens to replace my old one with, so he just left it the way it is now. It doesn't matter, I'll be fine.

"The difference between me and the other members of the club is that I didn't stay there every orbital cycle like they all did. I left, I don't really remember why though. I would leave for orbital cycles on end, returning to refuel and have a decent recharge. They planned something big one time, an action that they hoped would change things around here. I left after that meeting to go wherever I had decided on for that time, and a couple of orbital cycles later when I returned, the club was gone. They had all been arrested for treason, for actually taking action against the system. I saw the place left behind, a ruined home. The only reason they had never been caught before then was because it was literally underground. The meeting place was under the leader's home. At first I had thought they had all just left, but then I found out that they had taken action and were all caught. Citizens were all talking about it, and that's how I found out what really happened. I stayed at the now empty home anyway, having nowhere else to go. Eventually, I ran out of supplies, so I had to find a new way of getting energon. I still stayed at that home, using it as my own. It was nice, but quiet and lonely."

"Well," Streaker began, "it doesn't matter now, we're doing what they tried. Except we won't fail."

Shadow smiled at her sire. No, they wouldn't fail. She was sure of it now.

* * *

><p><strong>What? I'm late with an update? Hehe, yeah, sorry about that. I was busy over the weekend and wasn't feeling too motivated to post this yesterday. Ahem, anyway, onwards to my usually talk about the chapter. When I started posting this story on here, I was either at the end of sixteen, or just about to start seventeen. This chapter took so long to write. I just wasn't as motivated with it as I usually was. Now I'm on twenty. I hope you like this chapter, and I can't believe that in all of that time I've had since chapter one was posted, I've only finished three and a half chapters. I really am slow sometimes. I used to write two chapters a day when I was really into it. Although, I've been looking forward to writing twenty for some time now, so it should be done soon.<strong>

**:(**

**Thanks for reads! Next chapter...is coming too earlier in my opinion. Expect another late chapter in the future, it may happen.**


	18. Chapter 18

**Chapter Eighteen**

Forward himself wasn't very injured. No, he hadn't been attacked head on like some people. Others, like Chromia, Jazz, Skyfire, and one or two Aerialbots, were also fine like Forward. Firestar, Sideswipe, more Aerialbots, and Moonracer were more severely damaged. Even Sentinel had bad wounds, so of course he was making sure to be treated before anyone else. Heth wasn't tending to him though, a different medic was. His name was First Aid, and earlier he had helped with the building incident.

Sadly, some unfortunate citizens got caught in the crossfire and are offline now. Family members and loved ones were mourning their losses and some even yelling at the Autobots who had been fighting. Forward had already gotten complains from an elderly femme who had lost her son to a Seeker. It broke his spark to know that innocent mechs and femmes had been deactivated like that, but there was no going back to the past. He knew that quite well. Going into the past sounded nice. There were so many things that could be changed, but the first would probably be having done something about this sooner. Maybe Sentinel was right to be paranoid. Forward felt bad about a lot of what happened here earlier.

They had had stellar cycles to do something, but nothing was done. It was a stupid wish to have thought that the Seekers would be peaceful with them. Even so, looking back, without the knowledge that the Seekers would eventually attack, Forward couldn't see anything being done differently. Knowing that the past could not be rewritten by any means possible, Forward decided he'd have to move on from the events of earlier if he wanted to prevent anymore innocent lives from being deactivated. To accomplish this, he would have to fight better. Is there any way to end the conflict without fighting? There is always fighting, always losses, and is that how it will always be? Now that Forward thought about it, if the Seekers hadn't resorted to violence and had peacefully returned to Cybertron, then perhaps, after much persuasion, Sentinel would have left them alone. That's a dream though, one that has no chance of ever coming true.

Forward decided to see how many of them were prepared for a second assault. None would come anytime soon. The Seekers had taken damage too, so they both had time. Finding the ship again would have to be done sooner rather than later if the Autobots wanted any advantage. Maybe, though, in the time they did have, Forward could return home and do something about Nowli. First things first, he needed to check with Sentinel and the others. Maybe he could help with repairs, though he wasn't a medic. He could follow orders though, so even if it was just getting some tools for someone, he would do it.

The Aerialbots were in the med bay, unsurprisingly. "Fireflight, who could you let him get you!" One of them said, scolding an injured jet.

Fireflight gave a sheepish smile. "Sorry, I got distracted. It won't happen again, possibly..."

"Oh, there's a shock." The one scolding him, Air Raid, rolled his optics, clearly annoyed by his teammate.

Forward couldn't help but smile a little at the scene, walking past them to find Heth first. As he looked for her, he almost didn't notice the apparently angry, older medic that stomped past them all. "I'm in a bad mood, so don't protest when I fix you up. I was trying to have a small vacation to visit my human friend, but I just had to get called back because the Seekers decided that now would be a perfect time to attack." He grunted to himself, taking a nervous looking pair of twins into a separate room. The medic, Rachet, was one of the best they'd ever had, so at least Sideswipe and Sunstreaker would be promised good repairs.

After seeing Rachet, however, Forward changed his mind and decided to stay in the waiting room. He didn't want to bother any of the medics there, even if he was trying to help. However, Sentinel was probably getting repairs right now. He was a Prime, and being Sentinel, he would make sure to be looked at first before anyone else. Forward would just have to wait for him to be done with. Repairs probably wouldn't take too long, not when there were so many that needed them. Everyone would get a fair repair.

"How are you?" The voice of one of them femmes from earlier brought Forward's attention to the row of seats behind him. Seated there was the blue femme, Chromia.

"I'm not too bad, what about you?" Forward walked over and sat next to her. He had never talked to her before, so it was a little awkward.

"My arm's a little scratched up, but nothing too damaged. I'm waiting on Firestar and Moonracer though, they got it worse. I think Moonracer may have offlined one of them though. I sort of wish she did. What with everything they did, I mean did you see those innocent bystanders laying on the ground? Those Seekers will pay." She glared at the ground, no doubt imagining just how the Seekers would pay.

"Yeah, it's sad," Forward agreed. He wouldn't admit it out loud, but part of him agreed with all of what she had said. Then something came to mind, and he couldn't help but ask about it. "Where's Elita?"

Chromia smiled, turning to look at him. "She did better than Sentinel did, so she went off to talk to Optimus Prime. Him and his group came back from their trip using the space bridge. I think Ultra Magnus called them back. It's a good thing."

That explained Rachet. "His help will be appreciated." She simply nodded. Nothing more was said, and nothing came to mind. Forward knew he needed to do something. After all that had happened, he wanted to feel accomplished. Unfortunately, he knew Sentinel would be angry with him if he left without telling him. Maybe Chromia could help him though. "Can I ask a favor from you?"

"Maybe, what is it?" Her face was blank, no emotion.

"When you see Sentinel, can you tell him that I went home to finish something?" Forward requested. She nodded, so he got up and walked toward the exit. He walked quietly down a hall before finding the exit to the outside. He turned away from the sight, not wanting to be reminded of what had happened only a megacycle at the most earlier. No, right now he had something else to do, something that had been eating at his processor the whole orbital cycle.

He only made it a few metres before someone landed near him. He tensed, ready to fight if he needed to. Only it wasn't a Seeker. No, it was his good friend Skyfire. Turning fully to face him, he greeted him. "Hello there."

Skyfire smiled a small smile at him, but it fell quickly. "Firestar's not looking so good."

Forward frowned. "That's not good. How bad was she hit?"

"A blast just missed her helm, but she was hit directly in the chasis. Not sure which one shot her, I barely saw it happen. It was a mech Seeker, had some blue on it, but other then that I don't know which one it was. There were too many to keep track of which was which. I don't know all of their designations anyway."

"Neither do I. I hope she pulls through though."

"Yeah, me too."

"What about the others? Sentinel?" Forward felt the need to add Sentinel like that. He wasn't sure why though.

"Not entirely sure. I got my wing mended, but that was my only problem. I did see Sentinel though, and he looked very angery about it all. His leg was a mess. He may need to get a knew one. I don't know which Seeker did it; I wasn't paying attention to Sentinel during the fray."

"Neither was I," Forward admitted. He had been mainly preoccupied getting everyone who wasn't involved to safety. After that, he had engaged in a small fight with a red and yellow Seeker that looked familiar. Looking back, he realized it had been the twins' sire. Forward couldn't pull up his designation at that moment.

"Where are you going?" Skyfire questioned him, looking at him with a puzzled look.

"Home, I want to tend to Nowli's body. I'm going to put her in the tombs. I would have done it more formally, but I want to make sure it is done. If I wait, there's still the chance that I'll offline before I can."

Skyfire put a servo on his shoulder. "I'm sure you'll be fine. Go on, if Sentinel asks, I'll let him know."

Forward smiled at him. "Thank you Skyfire." He remembered that he had requested the same from Chromia, but Chromia didn't know why he had left. Skyfire understood more of the detail, so he would be able to answer more questions, should any come up.

"I'd still hurry if I were you, you know how Sentinel is," Skyfire reminded him before turning to go inside.

"Yeah, I know." Forward transformed into his vehicle mode. He wasn't a big vehicle; more like an average sized one. He was mostly navy blue when in his alt mode, the forest green showing here and there. Black outlined the parts of the vehicle.

He drove off towards his home. As he travelled, he started to get this feeling that he couldn't quite decipher. It made him want to veer in the opposite direction and drive anywhere else. He understood that the feeling probably came from the fact that Forward didn't want to go home and see his offline girlfriend laying on her berth. She had to be moved though; she couldn't stay there forever, haunting him with the memory that was still clearly inputted into his processor. Not even an orbital cycle had gone by since the incident, so remembering it clearly wasn't unusual. Still, he didn't want to remember it. Then again, he did at the same time. These things were starting to confuse him.

Vexed by his internal conflict, Forward transformed halfway there. He knelt on the ground, trying to collect his thoughts. Did he want to return yet, or not? He had to, but he wasn't ready to. Having made his decision, Forward turned around to go back, but another thought plagued him. He needed to get it over with. That way, the thought of her still there wouldn't stay hanging over his helm for who knows how long. It would be best to just go home and do what had to be done.

This time he was sure of himself. He was sure of what he wanted to do and what he didn't want to do, but also sure of what he _needed_ to do. As he once again turned around to face the direction his home was in, another memory replayed itself in his processor. Dread filled his whole body at the wonderful memory. Forward should have expected this. He should have expected to be pulled back to all of the happy moments they had shared together. The one he was remembering at that very moment was the cycle he had asked her out. It had been two stellar cycles after Acid Storm and Dawn had been captured and imprisoned.

"We make a good team, Forward," Nowli had said, grinning. They had just caught a criminal. He had tried stealing from one of the wealthier families. With the Seeker activity laying dormant at that time, everyone in the special team had worked with their other lives. Nowli and Forward were partners once again, and they both enjoyed working together. It had been around that time that Forward had realised he was developing feelings for her.

"You're right, we do," Forward had responded. At that moment in his life, he had started to think things over. Did he have feelings for her? Did she have any feelings for him, or were they only ever going to be just great friends? Forward had hoped for the feelings to be returned, and that thought had boosted his confidence enough to try and hit or miss.

"Maybe we could have made a good team doing something else, you know, not fighting for justice. If this planet didn't need anyone to fight for justice, what do you think we would be doing?" She had asked him. This side-tracked him. Instead of asking her his question, he had instead thought about how to answer her own. Forward remembered wondering whether or not it was right to feel glad about the fact that there was need for someone like them. He had and always will be happy to have met her, but it was the conditions that they had met under that made him think more about it. He did meet her, so should he thank criminal activity?

"I don't know what I would be doing, this is my life," Forward had replied honestly. He had made the decision then to try and connect the conversation with his own question. He had been a little nervous about the whole thing. It always was hard to confess. Sucking it up, he almost just blurted out his question. The thought of making it connect with her question reminded him of how his thoughts should be conveyed. "If I didn't have this life, then I would never have met you."

"Same goes for me," Nowli had stated with a smile. Forward mentally slapped himself to try and be more confident and less nervous about it all. He had to stare right at her face to make it more serious so she knew he wasn't kidding. When he looked at her, she had caught his glance and returned it. They were looking right into each other's optics.

"You're a great friend, Nowli," Forward had begun, "but I like you more than a friend." He had half-expected her to be either confused or looking awkward at him. Fortunately for him, she had neither facial expression when he said that.

"I...guessed as much. More like hoped as much." She had given him a sheepish grin after saying that. His spark lightened somewhat at her response. At that moment, he had realized that encrypted in her response was the answer to his next question. Knowing this, he hadn't stuttered or looked away for any reason when asking her out.

And she had said yes.

While remembering this all, Forward had finally made it back to his house and entered it. Nothing looked wrong, but he still felt wary. It was as if he had waltzed right into a complete stranger's home. He didn't know why it felt like that. Maybe he felt like her ghost would pop out of nowhere and haunt him. Half of him did expect something like that to happen. If that happened, well he probably wouldn't like it.

He crept through the house, sneaking up to Nowli's room. The door was shut, just like he had left it. When he opened it, however, it was to a sight that he hadn't expected.

She was gone.

"Nowli?" He had automatically called out. No answer was received, so he stepped back into the hallway and continued walking down it. He knew that if she was offline, she shouldn't have gotten up and left. She couldn't not be offline though, he had seen her turn grey before his very optics. He had been the one holding her still form, carrying her inside to place her in the exact position that she currently wasn't in. Where could she be though?

He searched the entire house, twice, but still found no trace of her. A horrible thought crossed his processor. What if she had been taken? If some stranger - or not - had come in here while Forward was gone and taken her body for his or her own reasons, then Forward would most definitely be unhappy and determined to catch the one who did it. Who would have use for an offline bot though? Would she be sold for spare parts?

A hopeful thought was the next to find its way into his processor. What if she wasn't dead? What if she had actually been online and left the house to find him and the others? That was ridiculous in more ways than one, however. First off, she was offline. No doubt about it. Second, if he had somehow magically stayed online, she would definitely need medical attention. Third, if she had gone looking for him or another Autobot, then he would have seen her before. She knew where everyone and everything was, so it wouldn't be a problem. Unless she couldn't remember. That scared him: the thought of her walking around Cybertron with no idea where she was or what was going on.

Panicking, Forward ran back outside and called out her name. Again, no reply. A citizen looked at him funny before turning around and walking back into his home. Forward ignored him. Instead, he transformed and drove around the general area, looking for any sign of the missing femme. He searched for her, once in a while calling out her designation, but no trace of her seemed to be left behind. He was panicking now. It was as if she had just disappeared into thin air, metaphorically speaking. That wasn't possible though. Again, he wondered if someone had taken her. It was the only logical explanation left.

He refused to believe that, however, and returned home in a mad dash to find_ something_ that could possibly help him. He figured that starting in her room would be the best idea. Even though he had already checked there twice, he had never actually snooped around in there before. Ever. He had always let Nowli have her privacy. Now, however, was a completely different story. He needed to know everything if any of it might lead to someone who would want to have her body after she was offline.

He searched through her folders, finding nothing. He went through drawers, finding nothing, again. He looked everywhere. Everywhere, except one drawer he had forgotten. It was smaller, after all. Opening it up, he was disappointed to find it empty. He slammed it shut in frustration, but heard something shack inside. Opening it gently back up, again he saw nothing. This time he prodded around in it, figuring out that the bottom of the drawer was removable. Taking it out and placing it on the top of her filing cabinet she used for work, he found a small switch inside. Curious, he flipped it.

The berth - which he had found was attached to the ground - raised up as the poles at each end elongated. Once the berth was almost at the ceiling, it stopped. The ground underneath the berth split open, revealing a secret tunnel he had never known about before. Thinking that perhaps she had somehow gone down there, Forward lowered himself into the tunnel using a ladder that was going up the side of the tunnel. The bottom wasn't far down, but pitch black in darkness. The only light he had was the light from the room he had just exited, but that light wouldn't get him far. He would have to navigate using his other senses until more light was found.

He started walking down the tunnel, keeping a servo on the metal wall and searching for energy signatures, familiar or not. After half of a breem, he spotted a light at the other end. Neglecting his scanner for the moment, he dashed towards it, finding his path to be completely straight. It took him even less time to reach his destination, and when he finally sprinted into the light, he froze in shock. Standing before him, smirking, was a black and white femme with a red helm.

"...Nowli?"

* * *

><p><strong>I like cliffhangers, well, when I'm the one writing them. When I'm reading a story with a cliffhanger and no chapter after it, I get all excited and can't wait for the next one. Gosh, this chapter was took a while to write, mainly because there wasn't much to write about. I just kept going along with it, finding anything I could lengthen to make this long enough to be a real chapter. Twenty is much easier, and more fun to write, even though it's not done. Almost, but still in progress. I put Rachet in here, just like I said I would!<strong>

**Alright, I'm not one who likes to make it really obvious that I'm asking for reviews by begging, but it always made me so happy. That's one of the reasons why it took four days to get this chapter up: I wasn't motivated enough to do it. Anyway, if you wouldn't mind, I'd very much appreciate it.**

**Thanks for reading! This story's almost over. Yeah, it's a lot shorter (even though you don't actually know how long it is) than many stories on here, but that's just how it is.**


	19. Chapter 19

**Chapter Nineteen**

Slipstream stood in front of the as-ready-as-they-can-be Seekers. All of them were going to attack this time. All of them were going. No exceptions whatsoever. Thundercracker's left thruster had been repaired, Skywarp was nearly fully operational, Ramjet and Thrust's wings were mended, Skyliner had been mainly repaired with his self-repair system, and even Jet's chasis was good enough. Goop enough would have to be enough with the short time span that had been given to them. Only a couple of megacycles had passes since the last assault. Unfortunately, the only one of the that hadn't been cured a great amount was Acid Storm. During his brawl, an Autobot had shot him right in the right optic, completely shattering it. Dawn had no remedy for that, so he had to deal with half-sight until better services are offered. _If_ better services are offered. Slipstream looked at Shadow. Now there were two of them with uneven vision. Jet had helped Dawn with repairs, knowing what he did, but he only helped the slightest bit possible, not wanting to be bothered with repair duty.

There was no way the Autobots were going to want to fight outside again. They wouldn't be stupid enough to fall for that trick again. Still, the stupidity of the Autobots has proven to be useful before, so who knows, they might still be able to use the acid rain again. Spinshade had automatically blamed the rainmakers for causing Eclipse's deactivation. Dawn had defended her family by stating that it was Eclipse's fault for not seeking shelter. After all, she had been told of the plan beforehand as well as everybody else, so Eclipse should have known to hide.

So they weren't on good terms. Not that everyone had ever been fully united before now. The tension filled the bridge as they all prepared for the second assault. Hopefully, if all goes right, it'll be the last assault. Spinshade, however, worried her to some extent. He and his trine had always acted on their own before teaming up with the clones, and it had been made clear that none of them wanted to take orders from any of the clones in an inferior way. Taking orders from a mission leader was different. Slipstream understood why they didn't want to be bossed around by her; she wouldn't want to either. The Seekers weren't supposed to be under a tyrant like Megatron, but unified as equals. Sometimes, though, Slipstream got the feeling that Spinshade may feel superior to the others because they were all clones, while he and his trine weren't. Shadow and Downpour weren't clones either, but they were younglings and created by clones. Thundercracker had always seen himself as superior, and the trine had learned to live with that. He was the only exception though.

So, if Spinshade decided to attack any of the rainmakers, that wouldn't surprise Slipstream that much.

"Is everyone present?" Slipstream called out over everyone else's own conversations and battle prep-talks. They fell silent, mostly anyway. Streamline didn't stop talking right away until he realized how quiet it was. Then he turned his attention to Slipstream, looking rather annoyed for some reason. Slipstream ignored him and counted the Seekers plus Blitzwing. All of them were there, wait. She recounted, just to make sure. A lot of the time Skyliner tended to just up right disappear on her, not seeming to care about being there. He was there this time though, so that confirmed her wonder. Good, they were all ready.

"Let's go!" Thrust called out! There were yells of agreement at this. Everyone was fired up and ready to go, except of course, the twins. Much debate had been taken on whether or not they would come. Cloud had made sure that everyone on the ship knew that he didn't want to participate in the fight. Glyde, on the other servo, did want to fight. At first, Slipstream had been confused on who he would be fighting. Glyde seemed to have mixed feelings about both factions. After talking to him about it, he had agreed to join them in attacking the Autobots, but only certain ones. And when he said that, he mainly meant Sentinel Prime. Even though Glyde had promised them he would remain neutral after this was over, he still made it clear that he wanted to hurt Sentinel. The problem with that was, well, he didn't have any experience or weapon to use. It was a good thing that they still had the stolen cargo from all those times before when they would steal their needed energon. Glyde was given a standard blaster, not being able to handle much else and there was no time for installing a weapon into him.

Cloud had protested to this, trying to change his twin's mind. Glyde's processor could not be altered, however, and Cloud gave up on that. So, with one twin temporarily teaming up with them and one refusing to do anything, Slipstream and the others were left with an important decision. What were they going to do with Cloud? Slipstream didn't want to leave him on the ship, even if he is locked up in a room again. No one was sure if they would even return to the ship, and leaving it in a neutral's command might be a bad choice. If Cloud managed to get out of his room, he could steal the ship and hand it back to the Autobots. Or, he may reveal it and some Autobot would shoot it down in the hopes of destroying the enemy. Even though he wasn't on her side, Slipstream didn't want Cloud to offline. After all, he was still innocent.

Still, he couldn't be taken out into the fray. He would just get in the way somehow. In fact, he had just as much chance of offlining on the battle field as he did if left in the air, even more of a chance actually. Using this knowledge, the final decision was made and Cloud was forced into a stasis lock and left alone in the room he had been occupying lately. If all went well, he would never online until much later.

So there was indeed one exception to the everybody-is-going idea.

All of the Seekers going were excited enough, even though Glyde wasn't in the best of moods. He looked a little guilty, and Slipstream hoped he wouldn't change his mind now at the last minute. He probably felt guilty about going against what he and his brother had supported and also about leaving his brother behind in such a state.

"Alright, let's leave now and hope the Autobots haven't fully recovered," Slipstream decided. Someone, somewhere, uttered a "neither have we" but she payed no mind to it. It was probably Jet.

They all walked to the door, opening it and flying one by one out of the ship, transforming for better speed. The ship had been moved from it's previous spot, so the flight there would take longer than it had the first time. A thought that had occurred to Slipstream was how they would even find the ship if they needed to return. It was still cloaked, and there was no one inside that could tell them the coordinates or reveal the ship to them. The door had also been left open, as there was no one to close it. Hopefully, they wouldn't need to return.

Spinshade took point, as Slipstream had expected him to. He very much wanted revenge for Eclipse's deactivation. Streamline didn't seem to know where to fly. Usually he and Eclipse would take either side off Spinshade, but with Eclipse gone, it didn't look right. So, after a cycle or to, Streamline just went to the back to fly behind everyone. It was odd for him to do that because he usually wants to be the first one on the battlefield.

Below Slipstream was Shadow and Glyde, and both of them were talking. Slipstream was able to hear what they were saying.

"It feels nice to be on the same side during this," Shadow admitted to her brother.

"I told you, I'm not on your side, but only this once do we have the same objective. After I get my revenge, I'm staying neutral," Glyde reminded her.

"Still, it's a nice change to be working together instead of arguing."

"Well, I can't argue with that. Wait, what if he offlines one of us?" Glyde started to worry now, and Slipstream could only guess that it had something to do with his ancestry.

"Don't worry, we'll be fine. I know you are probably really bad at fighting, so stay with our creators for the most part, 'kay?"

"Hey, hold it up there. Since when were you so special that you didn't have to stay with the family?" All worry was lost in his voice now.

"Since the time I had to live alone and learned how to fight. Although you may not be great, you could still brag and say you're better than Cloud. If one of you were better at fighting, my guess would be you. At least our creators seemingly have some experience of some sort." Slipstream didn't interrupt them to confirm that. It was true though, Jetstream and Streaker both had been trained well before moving to Cybertron to care for a family. Hopefully nothing had gotten rusty or been forgotten.

"Tch, fine, but you better not deactivate yourself doing something stupid."

"Right back at you." Slipstream could practically hear the playful grin in her voice she would undoubtedly have had if she was in her bipedal mode.

Once the battlefield from earlier came into view, the Seekers split up into their respective groups. Someone must have seen them coming, however, because there Sentinel was, armed with his lance and shield, ready for them. Slipstream was going to attack him, even though she knew both Shadow and Glyde wanted to fight him, and probably Jetstream and Streaker as well. That thought changed, however, when Optimus Prime emerged from the Autobots' main building, holding his axe and positioned to fight. No other Autobots were showing themselves, so either they were all smart and were inside, or they were all wounded and unable to fight. It was probably the former, even though Slipstream was sure that she would rather have the latter be true.

Spinshade was no longer in front of her, but quite frankly, she didn't care where he had flown off to. Glyde sped up, heading straight for Sentinel. Streaker flew past Slipstream, undoubtedly going in the same direction. Shadow and Jetstream followed, and Slipstream couldn't help but notice that Shadow was the slowest. Jetstream and Streaker were the fastest, catching up to Glyde quickly.

She herself was already targeting Optimus, firing her null rays while still in her altmode. Ever since she had arrived on Cybertron with the rest of the Seekers, only earlier that orbital cycle, she had wanted to scan a real Seeker jet and be rid of her mocking Earth mode, but so far she hadn't been able to find the time to search for one to scan.

Optimus was dodging her shots, as expected of him. She knew that this would not be an easy fight. Optimus was a Prime after all, and the one who had taken down Megatron so long ago. With the help of his teammates, of course, but still he had managed to fend off against the great Decepticon leader. Overall, Optimus was an excellent opponent.

Slipstream flew close enough to transform, but far enough to stay out of his reach. She continued to fire at him, though so far she had no effect. Suddenly, out of nowhere, Streamline flew over and attacked Optimus head on without even using his null rays. Apparently, Streamline had skill in close combat, because so far he was doing pretty good. Optimus had his axe, while streamline had his ninjabot-like fighting style.

Slipstream took this opportunity to see what had happened to the others. Spinshade was out of sight, doing whatever it is he wanted to do so badly to take revenge. Skyliner was also gone, probably following Spinshade. The coneheads plus Jet were messing with the Autobot citizens that had come near them. Stupid bots, didn't they know that there had been a fight here just earlier that orbital cycle? Really, Slipstream was sure that most Autobots were created with some sort of intelligence dampener. The rainmakers had stopped to look around, deciding were to attack. Sunstorm had just flown past the two Primes and into the building near them. The rainmakers seemed to pick this up, because they soon followed him in there to deal with the Autobots inside. Thundercracker also went inside, but Skywarp seemed content with staying outside and just watching the battle. That didn't surprise Slipstream.

The four other Seekers were all teamed up to fight with Sentinel. Glyde didn't seem to be doing as much as he would most certainly like, considering the fact that he had no skill whatsoever. Sentinel jabbed his lance at Streaker, but taking on four Seekers at once was too much for him. The uneven odds didn't stop said Seekers though. Shadow, who had improved a great amount since the last time she had seen Sentinel, was attacking him using close combat while her creators blasted him from above with Glyde. They just had to be careful not to hit Shadow. So along with using his shield to block out all of the shots fired at him, Sentinel also had to avoid being sliced by Shadow's blades, and this was a feat that was proving to be quite difficult for him.

Slipstream turned her attention back to Optimus, whom she would like to have a chance at soon. Leave it to Streamline to be clueless about anyone else's intentions and to just cut right in at the more obvious moments. Still, he wasn't doing a bad job so far. Slipstream had never known that Streamline was so skilled with close combat. He was completely neglecting his null rays. Maybe he felt that it would be more fair to fight on the same ground as the Prime. Whatever his plan was, it was working. The gold and silver Seeker had even managed to land a few blows on his opponent. Not that Optimus hadn't done the same, but it was impressive to say the least.

However, Slipstream didn't want to just hover and watch the whole time. Instead, after hearing something from the inside, she flew in as well. She heard Sentinel call out, but she didn't quite catch what it was he said. And what she found on the inside was no pretty sight.

At first sight, she didn't notice it. It was just a plain hallway, or it would have been, if shouting wasn't what reached her audio receptors. Turning a corner, she was met with many bots. On her side were Seekers, and on the other were undoubtedly Autobots. Excited, Slipstream was about to enter the fray herself, when a badly-timed comm. stopped her. Pulled back and moving back down the hall, she opened the private comm. link, curious as to why _she_ was contacting her.

"Yes?" Slipstream answered.

"I'm ready to join you whenever I can, which should be soon. I just need to finish something here and I'll be on my way," the spy told her, sounding a little arrogant about whatever it was she needed to do.

"Yes, fine, but come soon. We'll need as much help as we can get, and you haven't done much so far."

"Hey, I've done stuff! I just haven't...attacked yet. Big deal, you just wait until I get there!" The transmission abruptly ended there. Slipstream rolled her optics at this; sometimes her spy could be so cocky, too much for her own good.

Slipstream moved in to attack, this time blissfully uninterrupted. She immediately fired her null rays at the enemy, trying her best to land a hit. She wasn't like some bots, who would just fire at nothing, as long as they were shooting. No, she actually tried to hit something. In front of her is the rainmakers, Skyliner, and Sunstorm, but no Spinshade or Thundercracker. Slipstream silently wished that the coneheads and jet would come inside to join them. They would most likely come in at some point.

Across the hall were six Autobots. One is the same orange one Slipstream remembered from earlier when they had helped the imprisoned Seekers escape. There was also Mirage and Hound, and the yellow and green femme from earlier as well. A familiar blue femme is also among them, and it took Slipstream a moment to remember that she was the one who had spotted them during the rescue mission. The last Autobot was a well-known ninjabot. Slipstream had gotten his designation from the spy one orbital cycle, his name being Jazz. Deciding that he would be a formidable opponent, Slipstream flew over her comrades and over to the opposite side.

She fired her null rays as she closed in on him, and he seemed to realize that she was coming for him. He took a battle stance, pulling out his nunchaku. When she got close enough, he leaped at her. She had prepared for this, dodging him and shooting him. This would have worked, except he managed to avoid her null rays. She stayed in the air, knowing better than to walk into his safe zone on the floor. It was a good idea, except that he could practically fly to her level, being as skilled as he was about it. Jazz kicked off of walls and excelled in the art of catching-Slipstream-off-guard. She felt dumb for not thinking better about who he was and what his fighting style was. After all, she had done that with Sentinel. Now look where that ignorance had gotten her. On the ground with and injured shoulder.

Using her thrusters to boost herself up, she narrowly missed being hit a second time by Jazz. Gliding back towards the wall behind her, she heard screams coming from the end of this new hallway. Curious to see what - she presumed - Spinshade and Thundercracker were doing, she left Jazz, who only followed her, and went to see what was going on. She ended up in, judging by the sign welcoming her to it, a med bay with a separate exit on the side. She was angered by what she found Spinshade doing.

He was attacking as many patients and medical officers as he could. This did infuriate Slipstream to some extent. Yes, they were Autobots. Yes, some of the officers were actually fighting back with some skill, but no, most of the patients probably didn't deserve it. Most of them were innocent. It was at this moment that Slipstream really realized how heartless Spinshade really was. Maybe it wasn't so surprising that he and Eclipse had formed a trine together with Streamline. Even the fearless Seeker outside had this look in his own optics, a look Slipstream had noticed when he started fighting Prime. All three of them really were evil.

"Spinshade!" Slipstream called out, but her call went ignored and forgotten when Jazz caught up with her and attacked her again. Slipstream resumed her fight with him, learning from her mistakes. She fought him with wits this time, knowing just how he would predictably move each time, but that didn't protect her from when he did get her with the nunchaku. To be fair, she was also scoring points in the metaphorical game. Her null rays were powerful enough to hurt him, just as he hurt her.

"Found you!" Slipstream heard Spinshade yell with satisfaction. Turning away at the same moment Jazz did to see just who he was talking about, she spotted the mint green femme from earlier. She was sitting on a movable berth, holding an advanced blaster in shaking servos. She was obviously still wounded. Something clicked in Slipstream's processor, and suddenly everything made sense. Spinshade had wanted revenge from the start, and ever since Eclipse's deactivation, his revenge had been focused on this femme. Slipstream hadn't known exactly who it was that had offlined Eclipse at the time. Spinshade must have searched for her in here, and somehow the femme had managed to make it to the lobby with a weapon, ready to defend her kind selflessly.

So when Spinshade aimed to fire at her, Slipstream didn't stop him. Jazz, however, must have decided to step in and help the wounded femme. He ran over to her, then launched himself at Spinshade. The two began to fight and again Slipstream was surprised at how well another member of the trine could fight. Streamline was great, and now Spinshade was too. Eclipse was most likely as well, but unfortunately she couldn't prove that herself. Slipstream was sure that both of them had more skills than she herself did at fighting now. Slipstream had never really payed much attention to them before now. In fact, Slipstream didn't even know what they had been doing or where they had been before Skyliner brought them to her and the other clones. Whoever had trained them obviously knew what they were doing. It was no wonder now why Spinshade had demanded not to be ordered around. He was superior in skill to many of them.

Even Jazz, who, with Slipstream, had been on his way to victory, was struggling with Spinshade. Not only was Spinshade winning, he was also laughing. _Laughing_. Just an orbital cycle ago the thought of Spinshade showing emotion like that was a crazy thought. He was always so stoic, and yet there he is, slowly becoming insane. Slipstream would never have guessed that Spinshade could lose himself so easily.

That's when Slipstream remembered the injured femme. Turning her attention to the Autobot on the berth, she quickly made the decision to attack. Hurting someone who was injured? No, that was not beneath her. Hurting someone who was completely innocent? Possibly beneath her. That was why she hadn't forced Cloud to join them. The nameless femme noticed Slipstream, raising her blaster and not hesitating to fire. Slipstream just barely avoided it. This femme had a good shot, and Slipstream remembered when she had shot her on her wings. It must have been easy for her to shoot down Eclipse, especially when the Seeker was already injured.

"Don't you dare attack my patients!" Another well-known bot said as he angrily entered the lobby. Oh yes, Slipstream knew who Rachet was. She had never actually met him, or seen him in person, but she knew who he was. Knowing this to be her chance at a fight that wasn't interrupted, again, Slipstream fired shot after shot at the medic. He was only hit by the first few before he began putting up more of a fight. Except, he was unarmed for the most part. It became too easy of a task to get him at the knees, causing him to fall forward onto his chasis. Slipstream flew over to kick him, but felt incredible pain in her side and fell over herself. On the ground, she turned to find it was the femme, who had finally fired at her.

Slipstream was in pain now, holding her side, where she was hit, with her servos.

"Good shot, Moonracer," Rachet congratulated the femme. Well, at least now Slipstream knew her designation.

"T-thanks Rachet," she thanked him. Her stuttering reminded him that she was still a patient that had yet to be treated on. He rushed to her berth, limping, and pulled her out with words of comfort for her bravery. Slipstream didn't want it to end like this. Not just her life, but her whole operation. Would it mean nothing? Spinshade just might became insane before this is over, and who knew how the others would handle it.

The answer to whether or not Streamline would gain anything from the fight was given when his frame was thrown through the exit. He was badly beaten up, but not yet offline. Still grinning like an idiot, he struggled to get up. Optimus walked in, looking down at the Seeker with mercy. Slipstream was reminded that Optimus had never wanted to offline Megatron, so why would he do that to Streamline, a much smaller threat?

Spinshade begged to differ. "Oi, stay away from him!" He called out, charging his null rays to fire them at full power, something they hardly ever did because it took too much time and energy. Jazz, who had been losing, was on his knees. He looked at Optimus with worry in his optics.

"'S okay, Spinshade," Streamline promised. "I'm not going to offline just yet."

It was too late for that, however. Spinshade had already finished charging up his null rays and fired, unintentionally hitting them all with a blinding pink light.

* * *

><p><strong>PLEASE READ! Here's the truth about this story: it was only supposed to be 22 chapters long. I've recently decided to make it longer, but can only think of ways to add two more chapters. If anyone has any ideas for this story that they'd like to share with me, PM me. I'll give credit in the author's notes at the end of the chapter for your idea(s). You may want to know about next chapter first, but I still would love to hear about anyone else's ideas. I feel this story would be too rushed if I ended it at 22. That's all for the important announcement, and thanks in advance!<strong>

**Okay, about the chapter. This is my longest chapter so far, and when I first wrote it I was afraid it was too short. I sure was wrong. When I came up with the idea of the trine, I wanted them to be evil, decepticon-like. When watching Transformers Animated, I noticed how in episode three Starscream's null rays seemed more powerful than in the rest of the show. So that's where I got the idea for a more charged null ray than usual. Here's the bad news: chapter 20 isn't done yet. I should have it done soon, but my days have gotten more busy than I would have liked, so yeah. I also don't want to start 21 until I know for sure where I'm going in that chapter, and again, even if it's just a small idea, I'd like to know. So far, in my head, chapter 21 isn't that long.**

**LucasVN: I would love to hit 100,000 words, and I do hope to if I can think or get enough to write about to make it that far. Yeah, I've had problems with grammar and right now I am working on improving it outside of this story. I can't believe I didn't catch the knew/new when reading over the chapter. I'll try and fix it, and thanks for pointing it out! Thanks, I'm glad you think I'm a good writer. I felt a little awkward writing that chapter with Forward (I'm not used to writing romance-related things), so I'm glad it turned out good.**

**Kitty Ghost: Thanks and if you can think of a way to bring Starscream into this, I'll gladly try to fit it in. (I've got nothing so far with him)**

**Thanks for reviews! Next chapter will answer a big question! I doubt anyone will expect it, but hey, it's possible.**


	20. Chapter 20

**Chapter Twenty**

"...Nowli?" Forward asked, unsure if it was really possible for that femme to be standing in front of him. "No, she's offline, so who are you?" Not only was Nowli offline, this femme was acting completely different. She was standing there, looking exactly like the femme he had loved, smirking and sporting gleaming red optics. Nowli didn't act cocky, or have red optics.

"Correct, I'm not Nowli," the femme confirmed. Forward was still puzzled as to who she was, though. "Let me give you a hint." The femme removed her helm, placing it on a shelf that Forward had just then noticed. Also on the shelf were two more helms. One was a spiked up one, which she picked up and placed on her head. She offlined her optics, and just like that, her color scheme changed to purple and yellow. She onlined her optics, now green. "How do I look?"

Forward recognized her alright. She was the femme he had seen in the med bay not so long ago. But, who is she, and what is she doing here, impersonating Nowli? Wait, Forward didn't want to believe it, but what if Nowli didn't exist, and this is a femme who had pretended to be Nowli for oh so long?

"You're pretty quiet, you know that? Alright, now let me show you my true form," she said. She removed her helm and exchanged it with one similar to Nowli's, except it was white and slightly different. She offlined her optics once again, changing her color to midnight blue and black. Onlining them, they stayed green, even though Forward had expected red.

"Who are you? Explain yourself."

The femme shrugged, toying with him. "I don't know, I'm lots of people sometimes. It's my job to spy, to hide around and play pretend."

"Stop messing with me, just answer the question. What is your designation?" Forward wanted to know the full truth. He wanted to know if he had been lied to by this deceiver all of this time.

She just smirked. "Fine, but it won't mean anything to you. My name is Niowl, it's a pleasure to meet you." She held out her servo like a well-mannered femme, but Forward barely glanced at it. He was too preoccupied by how similar Niowl was to Nowli. This femme, there was no doubt about it. What with her unique ability to change her color, and then the fact that she had Nowli's helm, well, it was all very obvious to Forward what had happened. He had been played. All of the Autobots had been tricked. It only took Forward a nanoclick to piece it all together. Niowl, she had only pretended to be Nowli this whole time. When Nowli had died, it was really Niowl changing her color scheme to all gray. If he hadn't just left her there, maybe he could have done something different, something better. What, he didn't know.

"No, Niowl doesn't mean anything to me. However, the fact that you pretended to be Nowli does. Why did you do that?" Forward was angered, and, under it all, even a little bit embarrassed. He had fallen for her act so easily.

She laughed. "Oh, no, as much as I'd love to toy with you longer, I just want to correct you. I never was Nowli." She kept her smirk, waiting for his response.

Forwards optics widened. That didn't make sense. "Then, Nowli is a real bot?" Something told him that it wasn't true, that she had never really existed.

"In a sense." That was the only answer he got. It irritated him how much she was dodging her question, keeping him held in confusion until she saw it fit to explain it thoroughly. She didn't say anything else, waiting for him to speak first.

"And what does that mean?" He felt like he was playing into her servos by asking this. She wanted him to ask this, it was plainly obvious how much she was enjoying it all.

"Oh come on, like you've never seen one before. You're a smart mech, figure it out." Niowl winked at him, waiting for something in his processor to click.

And click it did. "Nowli's a clone of you?" He couldn't believe it; it was the last thing he had expected.

"Ding ding ding! We have a winner!" She laughed, waving a digit out in front of her and vexing him even more. Forward found her to be the most annoying femme he had ever met.

"Just tell me what is going on, would you?" Normally, he would add in a please, but he was fed up with this femme at this point. He wanted a real explanation on everything, like if Nowli is even online still. One of them had been there; one of them had either died or pretended to. Forward hoped it had been Niowl pretending to die, but she had said that she'd never been Nowli.

"Hm, alright, I'll say a little bit," she decided, putting a digit to her chin to appear to be in thought. "As you can tell, I'm not a flier. I wasn't born a Decepticon, I became one. I've been against the Autobots for almost my whole life. My creators were Autobots, but they didn't like me. They despised how I was different. Plenty of bots before me have had unique qualities that made them different, so I don't understand why me being able to change my body color was such a big deal to them. Apparently, they were too concerned for what kind of criticism I would bring upon us, and how others would think of me. When I talked to other bots, they all admired my ability. My creators didn't see that. They were paranoid, going on about how I wasn't normal. I tried to tell them that I was fine, that there was nothing wrong with me, but they never listened. My carrier was insane. She tried to have me locked up in my own home. She was too worried about appearances. To her, I was a freak that couldn't be seen around her. I was something she was embarrassed to have created. I was locked up actually, for half a stellar cycle. It was horrible, and sometimes she would 'forget' to feed me. She probably actually wanted me to offline so she wouldn't have to deal with me anymore.

"My sire was no different, in fact he helped with everything. At one point, however, he started to see the sensible side to things and tried to persuade my carrier to let me out. He actually began to warm up to me, beginning to like my ability. I was so happy to hear this, thinking that for once I would be loved by at least one of my creators. But no, my carrier wouldn't have it. Every time someone came to visit, she slowly lost her sanity trying to make me disappear from everyone's memories. I don't know what she did or said to my sire, but he just left one day, leaving me with her. No one did anything, no one seemed to care about what she was doing to me. I really began to hate the Autobots when I found out that they really weren't being the heroes like everyone said they were. Maybe that was because they didn't know about my situation, but they must have thought that something was up when my carrier committed suicide.

"But no, I was left alone for the rest of my cycles. I've gotten no word from my sire, nothing. Maybe he's offline too, I don't know. What I do know is, well, I'm slagging proud of my ability, and I want the whole world to know that I'm different. Que the green optics. I changed them to that color so bots would know that there was something different about me.

"I heard about the Decepticons on Earth, and then watched as everyone celebrated their defeat. I saw the two Seeker clones that came down to Cybertron, the ones that started a family. I talked to them, asked them questions, got details on the whole thing. So I had a chat with Slipstream and became part of the team. I then created a clone to use as a way to spy on the Autobots. See, I'm a terrible actress, so Nowli was created. I programmed her a certain way though, different than the Seeker clones. I made it so I could look into her processor and replay things she'd heard or seen throughout the orbital cycle. Only, this could only be done when she was recharging." She paused for a moment, reminiscing about the past.

Forward couldn't bring himself to feel pity for her, but instead let a small burst of anger at unknown Autobots flow through him. How? This was why bots became Decepticons; because some Autobots treated others badly. _How_ could Autobots be so stupid sometimes? Forward was left with one major question that was eating away at his spark. Well, two major questions actually, but first thing's first. "Did Nowli know about this?" Of course she knew, but Forward couldn't help but ask.

"Sorta," Niowl said with a shrug, like it didn't matter. That stung. Not only was Nowli a clone, she was a traitor as well. If she knew that someone was watching her every move, that someone was taking all of the information she gained, then why would she proceed to join a secret Autobot group? Did she not care that she was endangering all of the Autobots on that team? Did she not care at _all?_

"Wait, 'sorta'? Explain," Forward ordered her.

"Sort of." Niowl teased him, smirking again.

"I didn't ask what 'sorta' meant, but what you meant _by _it." Once again, she was irritating him.

And once again, she was playing her little game. "Oh, well I meant she _sort of _knew." She played a happy grin, like a youngling that had just accomplished something big.

"Stop that!" Forward was surprised he was yelling. He hardly ever yelled, even if the other bot was annoying him. Niowl only smirked with pleasure at his annoyance, at her success. "Tell me, if Nowli knew you were doing this, why did she join us anyway?"

"Because I told her to."

Forward was once again confused. "Explain, better this time."

She put on a determined face. "Okay! I. Told. Her. To. Join. Your. Team. She. Followed. Orders." She kept the determined face. For someone who wasn't an actress, she sure knew how to irritate people and still keep face.

Forward had already lost what little patience he had. This femme...he was tired of her games. "Why did she follow your orders though?" He prevented himself from snapping, but he was close.

"That's simple. Because I wanted her to." She smiled, glad to see how frustrated he was. Forward was about to snap at her, but realized the meaning behind her words and how she had actually answered exactly what he wanted her to answer.

"So, you programmed her to be obedient with you no matter what?" Forward asked, calming himself down now that he'd finally gotten that answer from her.

"That's right. Clones sure are something, huh?" She made small talk with him, as if they were friends or partners researching clones. Forward couldn't believe that Nowli had been created by this femme. They were so different.

"Wait, then why did you have Nowli offlined? Or did you not plan that?" Forward knew he had to be as clear as possible with his questions if he wanted an answer.

"Oh, that wasn't her, that was me pretending to be her." That...was probably the most straightforward answer he was ever going to get from her. No games, just the answer.

"You said you never were her though." He pointed at, remembering her earlier words.

"I never said that." She pulled out an innocent face. He wasn't accusing her of murder, just lying. Forward vented a sigh. Great, back to the games.

"Yes, you did. You said you never pretended to be Nowli. Nowli was shot in a critical area and offlined, or was that you pulling a stupid and dangerous stunt with your unique ability?" He was sure he had figured it out.

"What ability?" She kept on that innocent and confused look.

"The one you told me about. Changing colors and all." He was going to get a processor ache from this one.

"I don't have any ability, you're not making any sense." She looked so confused, he almost bought her act. However, he had seen her use it, heard her story. He was sure she was just playing with him again.

"Yes, you do. Your optics are green."

She looked scared. "No they're not, they're red! You're confusing me, maybe you hit your cranial unit earlier. Do you want to lay down, by any chance?" Where she got the idea that she wasn't a good actress was beyond Forward's knowledge. She had probably lied about that too.

"I'm just going to go with you pretended to be Nowli and faked her death. I just want to know why though. And don't deny it, I saw you at the hospital earlier." He gave her a stern look, and she smirked again.

"Yeah, that was me, both times. She was there earlier, but when she entered her room, I gave her the order to return to me. She unconsciously did so, and I switched with her. It was daring, I know, and I'm not actually sure if any of the Seekers even knew if it was me or not. Oh well, I survived, and thank you for just leaving me there. I don't think I could stand playing offline for any longer." She feigned exhaustion and sat on a berth against the wall. Forward got his first real look around the room. The metal walls were covered with lights. There was one door on the wall opposite from where Forward had entered, and where he in fact was still standing. The shelf with her other two helms was positioned on the wall opposite the one with the berth next to it. Whatever else she needed was probably in the other room. Forward also wondered if there was another exit. There had to be; Forward had never seen Niowl before now, or at least, he had never seen her as _herself_. If that was even her original color scheme.

"Wait," Forward said, connecting the pieces, "that means Nowli is still online." He hoped it was true.

"Who's Nowli?" Niowl asked, and for a moment Forward thought she was going to begin another game of hers again. Then she continued. "Oh yeah, my clone. I forgot her for a nanoclick there." She idiotically grinned, but quickly changed her expression to exhaustion. "I'm tired. You don't mind if I just, like, recharge for a couple of megacycles, do you?" She lay down on the berth on her chasis, perching her head up in her servos and looking at him with dim optics.

"What? No, you can't recharge!" He should have expected something like this. "Where is she?" He immediately regretted that question and wished he had made it more specific. Too late.

"Who?" She cocked her head to the side in confusion.

"Nowli." It was a deadpan, and she found amusement from that. She was actually giggling now. Talk about a change in attitude. "And you think you're a bad actress." He shook his head in frustration.

She stopped, blank expression covering her face. "When did I say that?" Why hadn't he expected this kind of answer?

"Just earlier - you know what? I'm not playing your games anymore. Just tell me if Nowli is online or not and where she is." This was taking too much time, and he didn't have time to spare. Who knew when the Seekers would begin another assault? He sure didn't, but maybe this femme could help him with that.

"Her body's next door," she replied with a nudge. That scared Forward. "Her body." Did that mean she was offline? Refusing to believe that, but also seeing it possible that Niowl would offline her, he left the small room without a second thought. Only when he opened the opposite door did he realize that this could be a trap. He was her enemy after all. The thought of figuring out one of the last pieces to the puzzle allowed him stroll into the next room. It was dark in there, but an automatic light turned on to reveal a slightly larger room than the first. There was a curtain in the corner, hiding something behind it. Because he didn't see Nowli anywhere else in the otherwise empty room, Forward made his way over to the curtain. He pulled it to the side, seeing exactly what he thought he'd see.

Nowli, still colored, is lying on a berth. Her optics are offline, so Forward's only half-sure that she is online. Her helm is missing, but Forward already knew where that is. He had expected that anyway. Her helm being the only color except for her optics that she usually had, it was hard to tell if she was indeed online. The black and white part of her are very contrasting, so he imagined she was online.

"She's in stasis lock," Niowl said from the doorway. Forward turned to stare at her with a blank face. Niowl continued. "I was thinking of erasing her memory so I can use her again in the future for anything else. Maybe change her color and helm so she's not recognizable. Except," she changed her position and slowly walked over to him, "you got here in time to stop me." Her voice was almost seductive.

"You want to fight?" Forward asked to clarify. He didn't like the idea of Nowli losing her memories, so he would do what he could to prevent that.

She shrugged. "I've been stuck down here - only leaving to get necessary items and medical attention like earlier - for quite some time, and it's been pretty boring." She paused, then nodded. "Yes, I would like to fight. I'm glad you came, Forward." She gave him an evil smirk, and he knew right then and there that there was no backing out of a fight. She wanted one and she was going to get one.

Before he had time to prepare himself or even figure out what her fighting style is, she had already kicked him in the head. He crashed into the wall, not too damaged. He decided that she had probably looked over everything Nowli had learned from Jazz as well as Autobot Intel.

He got up, ready this time. Her smirk grew, and she backed away, playing on the defensive side. He took a fighting stance, also on the defense. Neither one of them wanted to make the first real move. Her kick was a cheap shot that had caught him off guard. They walked in circles around each other, but after taking a few steps Forward stopped, not wanting her to get any nearer to Nowli. He shuffled his pedes back to stand in front of her, causing Niowl to pause.

She didn't halt for too long though, and instead attacked him again. Forward was better prepared this time, switching his servos out for two blades instead. Her kick was blocked by his blades, and he pushed her back. She stumbled, but didn't show any signs of surprise or giving in. Her wheels on her pedes shifted to under her pedes and she used them to skate around, increasing her speed. Her digits transformed as well, and Forward wasn't too surprised to see that she had the same weapon Nowli did. Instead of digits, Niowl now had small knives that extended to half a metre at will. At the moment they were shorter, and she was waiting for the chance to really use them. Those kicks from earlier had been child's play compared to what was about to go down between hem. Forward had hoped to avoid fighting so close to Nowli, but Niowl was blocking the exit and didn't seem too content to leave.

Let the fight begin.

Forward attacked this time, jabbing forth his left blade. She dodged to her left, avoiding the blade and instead bent low, sweeping out with her pede to try and trip Forward. The Autobot jumped at just the right moment, also managing to move away from her as she finished the attack with elongated knives that just barely missed his face when she clawed at him. Unfortunately, this also put Forward back in front of Nowli. He had almost succeeded in pushing Niowl into the other room to fight, but she was apparently too defiant to grant him that wish.

She skated forward, then sideways and into the wall. Except, instead of crashing, she skated on the wall. Forward wasn't surprised; he had seen similar things done before by Nowli. She jumped from the wall, missing Forward with her wheeled pede but managing to cut his armor on his left arm with her left servo. Now Niowl was in between Forward and Nowli, something Forward wasn't too ecstatic about. Teasing him, she placed a servo on Nowli's chasis. His right servo switched back and he aimed a punch for her face. She avoided a painful fate by practically doing a back bend, getting down low and with a push, skating around his legs. Forward's satisfied now that Nowli was still in one piece, but the fight wasn't over yet.

Spinning around, Forward narrowly missed getting his throat plating cut by her knives by leaning back, stumbling a bit by how far he actually had to try and bend. Both servos blades again, he rushed forward, trying desperately to land a hit somewhere on the femme. She's skilled, just like Nowli was, and judging by the look on her face the whole thing had been so easy up until now. Forward made sure to do better, to make sure things were really serious in the fight. If he found out that she had been playing with him again and she wasn't at her full strength then Forward would be in trouble. Then again, her cocky grin could be false as well, and really on the inside she might be struggling to survive unharmed.

The two tangled together with swift movements and shuffling, Forward finally managing to cut her down her left arm. She wheeled backwards, almost far enough to leave the room, but still refusing to do so. Venting in annoyance, Forward charged at her, hoping to get lucky a second time. He was, fortunately, and this time it was just above her pelvis that the cut was made. Oh yes, Niowl is angry now. That smirk from earlier is gone, replaced by a look of fury. Forward knew now that he's winning, unless Niowl is faking her defeated look.

She was not defeated though, as it turned out, and surprised Forward by shooting the knives out of her right servo. The small knives all hit Forward on his chasis, piercing him in places that shouldn't be stabbed. Not in the spark, thankfully, but still painful. Niowl lolloped, hoping to again hurt him and finish the conflict. Forward had other plans, shuffling to the side to avoid her. Both bots had, for the most part, forgotten Nowli's figure some metres away. This led them to better focus on the fighting between them.

Forward again got a hit at her, slicing her ankle when she jumped over his crouched body. She yelled at him, something he didn't completely understand, before limping over to the wall. They both paused, taking note of their own wounds and then inspecting their opponent's. Both were getting exhausted by the fight, but neither were ready to give up. Niowl jumped and aimed a kick for his head. Forward lazily whacked away her leg, but she landed on her hand and twisted around, jamming her pede into his back. He fell forward, while she fell onto her side, her arm not totally able to support her like that. She was the first to recover, standing up and not wasting an astrosecond to throw more knives at him. Once thrown, new knives popped into place. Forward rolled over to avoid these, still getting one in his shoulder joint.

Forward began to worry now. She was better than him, with her quick fighting and moves. Maybe Forward should have trained more often; he hadn't been in a real fight in a long time, at least not one-on-one like this. To beat her he'd have to get better.

Getting on his knees, Forward reached towards her as she dashed over to him. She saw this and jumped up, her legs spread apart liked the splits before she curled up and flipped over him, landing quickly behind him and kicking him again in the back. Now that she was near the wall, she gave up a moment to lean against the wall behind her. Forward staggered to his pedes, struggling just that. He turned, knowing this to be his opportunity to take the advantage. Running forward to her, she surprised him by jumping and hitting him square on the chasis with both pedes before landing on her pedes with a little wobble. He landed near Nowli's berth, and that's when he got the idea.

He needed help, and who better?

Scrambling up, he quickly tried to figure out how to wake someone up from stasis lock. There was a cord coming from a metal box on the wall that connected to a place in her cranial unit. He new that unplugging it from her would be best, but she should probably have her helm on. Knowing this, but also that it'd be hard to grab her helm and come back, he unplugged the cord from her cranial unit.

He should have been more vigilant while doing this. Niowl pulled him away from her by wrapping her arms around his neck, leaning him backwards and skating backwards as well. He grabbed her servos, but stumbled too soon to do anything. She let go, watching him fall onto his back before jumping onto his chasis, wheels reverted back to her ankles so she could walk. She knelt down on his chasis, placing her right servo at his neck, the tips of the knives pointing at his skin plating. Snarling at him, she drew her arm back and prepared to stab him. He pushed her off though, preventing what would have been something very painful.

Nowli still wasn't online, but that didn't unnerve him. He knew that it took the bot a couple of nanoclicks at least to reboot. While waiting, he tried to switch his and Niowl's positions from just a moment ago, but she was already getting to her pedes. Surely she was injured? Of course she is, but maybe she is trying not to show it. Testing that theory would have been a good idea, were it not for the fact that Forward is more wounded than she is. He could still feel the pain in his chasis and other places from the knives, which he realized may be because they were still there. Before she attacked him again, he tried removing some of them.

"I saw what you did to Nowli," Niowl told him, her face not giving away anything useful.

"And?" Forward responded, not really wanting to say anything else.

"It won't help you. I told you about how I programmed her, so she'll feel the need to follow my orders." Though obviously exhausted from the fight, Niowl couldn't help but smirk in triumph at Forward's failure. As much as he wanted to disagree with Niowl and prove her wrong, he knew it to be true. Why hadn't he thought of it before? He now knows that she won't help him, which makes the current situation seem even more terrible than it is.

The outcome of this fight can not be predicted.

* * *

><p><strong>I know I've said this many times before but, new longest! I just kept going on and on and on and almost couldn't decide how to end it. It was fun though, especially doing Niowl. Now I can finally explain where Nowli's name came from. In one of my actual stories (it's not posted anyway online, just something for fun) there is a character named Niowl, who acts a lot like this Niowl. She has something to do with darkness (I don't really want to explain it) so I took Night and Owl and combined them to make Niowl. Nowli wasn't originally supposed to be a separate character, but I liked her too much. That was decided way back in the beginning, chapter six I think. Yeah, Nowli is just Niowl but the letters are rearranged. Another thing: their helms. I always pictured Nowli's as one similar to Elita-1's in Animated, but a little longer and more straight. With Niowl, I thought of it like a side ponytail. I based Nowli's colors off of G1 Prowl's by the way, because Niowl and Prowl are spelled similar. I wanted Niowl to be what she is though.<strong>

**The request is still up! It'll take some time before the next upload, sorry. I've just finished 20; haven't even started 21. I'm waiting to see if anyone has any ideas so I know where I'm going with this. And did anyone guess this? The whole clone thing with Nowli and Niowl?**

**Prowls-little-angel: Thanks, and that's weird. Anything confirmed or changed because of this chapter? Did you expect what happened? I'd love to know your ideas, so when you choose the one(s) you want to tell me, well, PM me. (sooner rather than later, given how long it takes me to write chapters)**

**Thanks for reads (I forgot to say that last chapter) and reviews! Happy Holidays to anyone celebrating one!**


	21. Chapter 21

**Chapter Twenty-One**

Shadow had already known that Glyde would want to take his revenge on Sentinel. So did she, but so far it wasn't as wonderful as she had hoped. Sentinel is losing, but there's a reason why she didn't find as much satisfaction as she had hoped to get from it. The cause of this is the fact that Jetstream and Streaker are helping Glyde and her. Then again, Glyde's barely helping at all, so he can't really be counted. Shadow knows he's trying, but his lack of experience is weighing him down. He's clearly frustrated by this, but it's not like there's anything Shadow or their creators can do to help him. Sentinel's not just going to stand still and let himself be hit by Glyde.

Sentinel was beat, no doubt about it. Shadow pulled away for a moment to see how Streamline is doing with Optimus. The overenthusiastic Seeker seemed well enough. He had pulled away to shoot at the Prime, trying to get the upper hand. Retaliating, Optimus pulled out a blaster from subspace and fired back. Streamline didn't look like he cared.

"Ah!" Sentinel cried out, falling backwards. His shield flew out of his servo, landing metres away from him. Shadow dove for it, picking it up and flying back to hover next to an exhausted-sounding Glyde.

"Here, you take it," she offered. Glyde didn't seem to like that, judging by the way he looked at her.

"Why?" He asked, watching Jetstream and Streaker team up to finish Sentinel off.

"Because, you have the least experience out of all of us. You should take it in case anyone else attacks you." She knew he agreed with her reasoning, but out of pride Glyde wouldn't take it. Venting a sigh, she thrust it into his servos, making sure he was holding on to it before letting go and gliding away.

"Shadow!" He called after her, optics narrowed. She did her best to ignore him. Instead, she focused on her creators and their opponent. Sentinel was beaten, that was a definite fact now. That meant that someone else would have to take his place; she wasn't done fighting yet. It almost frightened her when she realized these thoughts. No, she was a Decepticon, it was natural to think like that.

An arrow flew past her just as she moved to enter the building. Against better judgment, she paused, turning to find the source of the assault. On the roof of another building was another Autobot. It wasn't one she knew by name, but he is still an Autobot. Deciding that this would be the perfect way to fully test her skills, she flew over to him, hoping that he was a long-distance fighter. It would be to her advantage if he was, but only if she got close enough to fight him her way.

When she got close enough, she swiped at him with her left arm and blade, but he dodged it. Putting his bow away, he kicked her in the chasis. So, he can fight close-combat. That didn't help Shadow out. Unless it was just a lucky kick. Then again, he wasn't retreating to a farther distance to fire at her again with an arrow.

"Shadow!" Streaker called her name. She hadn't fallen; she had only been pushed back by the kick. Taking the risk, she turned to see her Sire flying towards her, reaching her in astroseconds.

"Yeah?" She wondered.

"I got this one, you go inside and help the others. Trust me, okay?" He tried to give a convincing smirk, but it was a little shaky. There wasn't any time for her to question his motives, however, as the Autobot had begun firing arrows again. Streaker flew closer to him, firing with his nullray while dodging arrows.

Shadow didn't hesitate too long. Turning around, she found Sentinel on the ground and badly injured. That raised her mood. Jetstream was poking at his figure with her pede, a smile on her face. Glyde was nowhere to be found, but that didn't bother her. Maybe he had gone back to the ship, seeing as how his only purpose for fighting alongside her was complete. One thing she did take to mind, however, was the fact that the shield was nowhere in sight. That must mean that Glyde had taken it with him, wherever he had gone off to. Any worries she may have had lessened then, knowing that Glyde at least had some protection with him.

Pushing that aside, Shadow focused on her carrier. "Carrier."

Jetstream looked up, momentarily stopping to address her creation. "Yes, Shadow?"

"I'm going inside, I'm not finished yet." At first, Shadow was worried that Jetstream would disapprove.

How wrong was that assumption?

"'Kay, have fun!" Jetstream didn't seem to care. "Just don't deactivate, really do be careful." Shadow could have laughed at the example of bad parenting that she had just witnessed. Never had Shadow thought that a creator would tell his or her creation to "have fun!" when the creation said they were going to go fight and possible offline someone.

Ignoring it in favor of rejoicing her luck, Shadow flew into the building. She did take the time to notice that the coneheads were gone, probably inside as well. Before she entered, however, she heard a random burst of laughter from Streamline. Part of that didn't surprise her, but there really wasn't anything to laugh at when fighting Optimus Prime. Turning to inspect the situation, she found Streamline paused in midair, glancing at his leg. A short slash was near his pede.

"Whoa, that may have hurt..." The Seeker trailed off, deciding whether or not it bothered him that it hurt.

Deciding that she didn't want anymore interruptions, Shadow proceeded to go inside. Should she have expected it to be quiet, or loud? Whichever it was supposed to be, it was most definitely loud. The sound of weapon fire and yelling, mixed with the plausible horror that will reach her optics when she rounded a particular corner, was not inviting. Before she could hesitate too long, however, Shadow flew over to the hallway where it was all going down.

Immediately she was thrust into the battle, taking out a blaster she had put in subspace before leaving. She began firing at the Autobots on the other side. She had almost forgotten about that blaster. Out of the corner of her optic, she saw two Seekers down: Dirge and Acid Storm. Dawn stood protectively close to Downpour, who turned out to have a good shot. Ramjet, Skyliner, and Sunstorm were also there, both putting up a good fight. Shadow felt something as she began firing. She didn't understand it, but it was close to regret. What could she possibly regret doing?

It was at that point that something in Ramjet's processor just gave up and said "slag it all!" The liar transformed, speeding down the hall as fast as his thrusters would allow. When he reached the other end, he simply rammed into the somewhat shocked Autobots that happened to be in his path at the time. He took down two of them, but they weren't out for the count just yet. Transforming, he foolishly tried taking them both on at once, but a blue and white one proved to be very skilled at close-combat.

Shadow recognized an orange Autobot from the time when the Autobots had attacked Dawn and her back at the house. He wasn't silver this time, staying orange. She briefly wondered why, but pushed it aside, needing complete focus. Swerving from side to side to avoid getting shot, she fired back at the enemy. During this part of the battle, she realized why she had felt regret earlier.

Had she ever stopped to really think about her future beyond this conflict? Of course, she had always just figured that they would win and life would be great. And if they lose? There's no way she'll be able to live as a neutral when she actually was fighting back with want and need. The most possible outcome she can think of is being put in the stockade, but, from past occurrences, they might actually offline her. Then again, they had kept Blitzwing alive all of this time, and he is way worse than she is.

A close shot brought her back to the reality of her present situation. It seemed that Ramjet had gambled and lost, on the ground with stasis cuffs on his wrists. Acid Storm was trying to get back into the fight, but Dawn was telling him to stay down, saying that he shouldn't hurt himself anymore. Shadow agreed, but they didn't really have much of a chance anymore. With Ramjet, Dirge, and Acid Storm out, that only left Dawn, Downpour, Skyliner, Sunstorm, and herself. Downpour didn't count for much either, being so young. His main purpose was to make acid rain, and that wouldn't work inside.

On the other side, there are five Autobots: three mechs, two femmes. Really, it is still five to five. Experience wise though, the Autobots had the advantage. Shadow and Downpour had little experience, Dawn wasn't the strongest either. Not that she was bad, but the green and yellow femme across the hall that she seemed to be fixed on was better. Sunstorm and Skyliner had skill and questionable experience. She knew that Sunstorm had fought on Earth, and had seen him hold off against Autobots before, but she had no idea what Skyliner had been doing up until now. Seeing as he was with the trine, he should have some skill; Streamline was a good fighter himself, so either it was just him or him, Spinshade, Skyliner, and Eclipse. Of course, that last Seeker couldn't be tested.

From behind the Autobots comes Blitzwing, surprising some of them. This comes to the Seekers' advantage, needing the help and distraction. He was Hothead, and seemed to be enjoying himself. While the orange one was distracted by Blitzwing, Shadow got a shot at him in the shoulder. Proud of herself for even that, she continued aiming at him. Unfortunately, he was more aware of her now and, having no other choice when fighting two bots, turned silver and deflected the shots. Blitzwing got bored of him then and engaged in battle with the blue and white Autobot.

From somewhere beyond the hall there was a loud explosion. Some of the fighting actually stopped, surprised by the sudden noise. Entranced, Shadow flew down the hall to inspect the source of the noise. Skyliner also went, curious as well, but staying silent on the matter. When a green Autobot tried to stop them, Skyliner kicked him hard in the chasis, knocking him into the wall behind him. Shadow didn't hesitate or stop to see the damage caused to the Autobot, and neither did Skyliner.

Following the sound of someone yelling, the two Seekers found themselves in what may have been a med bay, but is now destroyed. On the ground was Streamline, still colored, but not moving. Standing just by the exit was Optimus Prime, injured but still standing. Slipstream and another Autobot were both on the ground, but both online. Spinshade remained standing as well, a pained look on his faceplate, arms slung down by his sides. He was glaring at the Prime with such hatred, Shadow was almost scared by him.

"Why didn't you offline?" Spinshade yelled at Optimus, who didn't have time to answer before Spinshade continued. "I aimed at you, and I only wanted it to hit you, but instead I hit everyone _but _you."

"He left the building, dodging the blast, you moron!" Slipstream told him, pushing herself up, but not standing. "Why did you do something so stupid? You hurt all of us, _all_ of us. Except possibly Optimus."

"As if I didn't know that!" He yelled at her, turning to his side to face her. Shadow and Skyliner were somewhat confused to what exactly had happened, but some parts of it were clear. Spinshade went back to glaring at the only standing Autobot.

A medic ran in, a mech, but his designation was unknown to Shadow and unimportant. When he saw the damage, he slowly backed away in fright. Needing something to use to rid him of his anger and frustration, Spinshade shot forward and kicked the medic hard, the same way Skyliner had kicked the green Autobot earlier.

"Spinshade," Skyliner said, announcing his presence to the crazed Seeker. Spinshade looked at him, expression blank now. "What happened?" The two words were directed at everyone in the room, not just Spinshade.

"He fired his null ray at full charge, trying to avenge Streamline," Slipstream answered, just noticing him and Shadow. Shadow looked back at the gold and silver Seeker, before staring at his teal and mint friend. A friend who had just destroyed the med bay.

Spinshade narrowed his optics at Slipstream, flying back over to confront Optimus, who had rushed to the Autobot on the floor's side. "Fight me," he ordered, standing on the ground, looking down at the Prime.

Optimus stood up, the Autobot having assured him that he himself would be fine. "If you don't need to fight, then why would you?"

That didn't help Spinshade at all. "No need? I hate Autobots! I was part of a trine, and one of your _good guys_ took one of my closest friends away from me forever! I will not lose another one because of you." He pointed a digit at the red and blue Autobot.

"Actually, you did some of that damage yourself, if you're referring to the one in stasis right now," he pointed out, giving a brief glance at the injured Seeker.

Shadow enjoyed watching this, part of her wanting the fight to begin just to see who would win. She would hope for Spinshade to win. That's when she remembered something one of her brothers had said about not all Autobots being bad, and that she shouldn't blame them all for something only one of them did. Then again, Optimus is a Prime, and he hadn't ever done anything to help her family, so that was enough reason for her to not like him.

Spinshade wasn't very happy about his fault being pointed to like that. His death glare wasn't pretty, and he launched himself at Optimus without any further hesitation on the matter. Optimus had expected this, defending himself well against the Seeker. They were fighting now, and Shadow and Skyliner just watched. Spinshade apparently hadn't had any real fights lately, judging by the amount of damage he had, which was next to none. Optimus had been fighting, so it was any one's guess how this fight will end. If Spinshade won, him and the other Seeker's would be that much closer to coming out victorious. That thought pleased Shadow.

Through the hole where the exit had recently been, probably destroyed by Spinshade's null ray, came Skywarp. He was being chased by three minibots: a yellow one, a red one, and a dull colored one that looked different. That last one had shades of green, orange, and brown, and by the way he looked, it was questionable whether or not he was a minibot.. The red one held stasis cuffs in one servo, prepared to put them on the Seeker. The three and Skywarp didn't seem to realize what was going on around them, or just didn't care. The yellow one had his stingers out, shooting the purple and black Seeker, not doing that bad. The other one picked up a chunk of metal from the debris and threw it at an unsuspecting Skywarp. It smashed into the Seeker before he could properly react to it, causing him to fall onto the ground. The yellow minibot cheered, while the red one rushed forward to disable Skywarp.

Shadow and Skyliner decided to help their comrade then, flying over and engaging them in combat. Shadow, putting her blaster back into subspace, chose the red one, deciding that he wouldn't be as bad as one of the other two. Halted in his rush, he switched out his own stingers. "Brawn!" He yelled, throughing the stasis cuffs to the dull colored one, who caught them. Now both of his stingers were out and aimed at Shadow. She didn't want the disadvantage, so she hurried forward and swiped at him, hitting his ankle with one of her blades. With such closeness, it was hard for the red one to miss her, and was able to shoot her in the shoulder when one of his arms flailed back, dodging her.

Brawn escaped shots by Skyliner, who was more preoccupied with the yellow minibot. The yellow minibot was taunting Skyliner, keeping his attention on him and not on Brawn. Slipstream didn't forget Brawn, however, and fired at him. She caught him off guard at first, hitting him on the back. He fell forward, but didn't stay down. The Autobot from earlier, who had been injured, had managed to get up and lunged at Slipstream. She hadn't expected this, but tried her best to put up a fight.

Luckily, Skywarp wasn't down for the count, not yet at least. He pulled himself from the rubble, standing up and nearly getting caught by Brawn. In his fright, he warped to the hallway Shadow had came from. He knew he shouldn't warp when it wasn't necessary, but he had been startled and couldn't help it. His teleporting annoyed Brawn, who had to chase after him.

Thundercracker came in the same way Skywarp had, except he wasn't being pursued. He sighed when he saw what was going on and decided to help Slipstream with the Autobot. "Be glad I'm giving you my services, no one really deserves them," he told her, not getting much of a response. They had all learned to deal with Thundercracker and his ego.

There was a Starscream-like shriek from the hall, so one of the clones had been hit or something of the like. Shadow didn't pay too much attention to it, focused primarily on the red minibot, whose name she had yet to learn. She didn't really need to know it anyway, so it wasn't much of a setback. She was just glad she was winning in a one to one fight. A fight like this was something she hadn't really had, sans the times when she was on her own. Even then, they were never very long fights. She would always flee before they could really turn into a fight. Now she is better and more skilled, so she had no reason to flee.

Skyliner won, slamming the yellow minibot into a wall. The same couldn't be said about Spinshade, who was too blinded by anger to fight properly. He was losing to Optimus, and Skyliner wanted to help him. The problem with that, though, is he didn't want to get hit by Spinshade. The Seeker wasn't thinking straight, and he would probably accidentally hit Skyliner if he tried to help him.

This time, it was Dawn and Downpour who showed up at the hole, but they weren't looking for a fight. "The others, they've been captured. We're losing!" Dawn called out to them. Shadow, who had time to spare, turned to face the yellow Seeker. The minibot she had been fighting was still shooting at her, but Shadow had hid behind the metal Brawn had thrown. Sunstorm and Blitzwing appeared by Dawn and Downpour, each with marks of their own to prove their struggle.

Thundercracker had practically taken over the fight with the Autobot, and Slipstream was leaning against the wall. She wasn't happy about the news Dawn had given her, that much was easy to tell by the expression she wore. It was one of exhaustion, disappointment. Shadow didn't have that much time to watch them converse, once again occupied with the minibot, whom had found a way to get a hit at her from her hiding spot. She was still fighting when she got a call over her comm. link by Slipstream.

"Everyone regroup in the alleyway Thundercracker, Skywarp, Sunstorm, and I had used when we went to rescue Acid Storm and Dawn." It was a comm. that they all got, and Shadow had no choice but to end her fight. She gave him one more cut with her blade, this one on his chasis. She flew over to Slipstream, who had activated her thrusters. It was fortunate that they still worked.

Thundercracker had beaten the Autobot, but the latter had already been injured so it wasn't much of an accomplishment. Spinshade didn't seem to want to leave his fight, but Skyliner managed to get him to come. Both minibots were beaten, but not fully down. Brawn had never come back, and Shadow was starting to think that it had been Skywarp who had cried out earlier. Optimus used his grapple hook, shooting it out so it wrapped around Skyliner's ankle. He wasn't keen on letting them go just so they could come back and wreck more havoc. Spinshade didn't allow this, shooting the cord to free Skyliner.

As they were leaving the med bay and going outside, Spinshade remembered Streamline. "Wait, we can't leave Streamline!" He called out at them, turning to go back. Skyliner grabbed his arm to prevent him from going back.

"Unfortunately, we're leaving more than just him behind," Slipstream told him. Shadow didn't like that, and they would all have to just figure out who all was left behind by seeing how many of them showed up at the regroup point.

* * *

><p><strong>Oxygen Magnesium! It has been quite some time, hasn't it? (Did anyone get the science joke at the begining of the author's note?) I am really sorry for the long wait. First off, I haven't been home some of the time, but that's not really an excuse. My main problem is lack of inspiration. Every two paragraphs I would just sit and stare at the screen, not knowing how to write the next part. I knew what was going to happen, but I still had numorous writer's blocks. Then I would get distracted by music. Another reason this is so late is because I got ideas for other stories to work on, and I really wanted to work on those, even if they aren't going to be posted anywhere any time soon. I was worried this chapter would be too short, but I managed to get past 3,000 words. I hope the next chapter doesn't take this long.<strong>

**By the way, random Autobots. In case anyone is wondering who they all were, the one with the bow is Rodimus, and the other three are Bumblebee, Cliffjumper, and (obviously) Brawn. That medic was just a random medic, no one specific. And in case anyone forgot, that was Jazz that was injured.**

**Prowls-little-angel: I figured at least one person would think it was Nowli. It may be hard to work any ideas you may give me into the story now, but you never know.**

**Thanks for reading and favoriting! Next chapter, I decided to do something I haven't done in a while.**


	22. Chapter 22

**Chapter Twenty-Two**

He onlined his optics, confused at first. Then it all came back to him - being forced into stasis lock, the other Seekers all leaving to fight the Autobots. As his other systems onlined, he tried to figure out why he was even online. He should still be in stasis lock, unless someone let him out of it. Sitting up, he saw the only logical explanation to why he was online. Standing on the other side of the small room, Glyde was looking at a shield he held in his servos.

Narrowing his optics, Cloud put the pieces together and understood. Still, he wanted to ask. "What are you doing here?"

Glyde looked up at him, expression void of emotion. He set the shield down on a shelf, but didn't move any closer. Cloud swung his legs over the edge of the berth as he waited for a response. "We got Sentinel. I didn't do much though." He looked depressed because of that.

"Is that his?" Cloud asked, indicating the shield. Glyde nodded, and Cloud sighed. "So why are you back? Didn't feel like fighting anymore?"

Glyde gave a glare, but Cloud wasn't sure if it was at him or at something internal. "I told you all, I only wanted revenge on the one who caused this whole mess. I got it, but I wish I had contributed more. It would have been better if it was just me and someone else, not the four of us. Both creators and Shadow helped."

"That doesn't surprise me, all of it. What are you going to do now?" There was a bitter tone in his voice, and Glyde got the message. Cloud was never going to be glad of their success or proud of the ones who had done it.

Glyde shrugged. "I don't know. I don't even know if we won or not. It's conflicting, I don't know who I want to win in the first place." He leaned against the wall, trying to figure out everything in his processor.

"Then don't choose. It's what I always do. And why did you say _we_? You said it yourself, you're not part of their group." Glyde shook his head, and Cloud stood up. Glyde looked up and watched as Cloud left the room through the open doorway. He found the exit of the ship closed, probably due to Glyde. He had never shut it.

"I'm not part of their group." That answer sounded a little sheepish.

"Took you awhile to answer that," Cloud pointed out, stopping to turn his head and look at his brother. Glyde stood up, walking over to stand directly behind him.

"I'm not, but I don't know if I can go back to being neutral. I helped, albeit barely, but still enough for some paranoid Autobots to label me as the enemy as well. It's not like Sentinel didn't know who I was or anything like that." He crossed his arms, mad now.

Cloud remained indifferent during his little ramble. While there may be some truth in Glyde's words, Cloud refused to admit it. The white and mint green Seeker didn't hate the Autobots, but he knew how some bots could be. If they did find fault in Glyde, they might blame him as well, even if they didn't have any proof. Then maybe, after time had passed, they would realize who the real evil was. Unfortunately, at least three-fifths of his family was guilty. Cloud couldn't see any outcome from this that involved his whole family living happily in the near future Unless the Seeker's actually destroyed the whole Autobot system, which Cloud admitted to not believe they would. Even then, it wouldn't be a happiness they would all share.

"You're being quiet," Glyde broke the silence Cloud hadn't even fully registered had taken place. He had been too lost in thought to notice.

"What do you expect will happen?" Cloud asked his brother, completely turning to face him. "I know I've probably said this before, but this whole thing is pointless. Tell me, why did you come up here?"

Glyde looked confused. "Pardon? What do you mean, exactly? I told you why."

"No, why did you come back? What do you think we can accomplish now? You never gave a thought to the future, did you?"

Glyde paused, then smirked. "You think too much, Cloud."

His expression didn't change. "I'm serious."

"Of course you are, and so am I. Loosen up. Now," he walked past his brother, "what to do?"

"I just asked you that." Cloud sighed, then followed Glyde as the two went to the control room.

"Yeah, but I can't think of an answer. You win, I wasn't thinking this whole thing through. Still, I regret nothing, except maybe doing more." He ignored the look of disapproval Cloud was giving him. Glyde grinned. "Let's fly this ship off planet for a long time, then come back and see how everything went. We'd have a less chance of being locked up if we disappear for a good amount of time."

Cloud sighed, but gave a small smile. "At least you're thinking of something. I wonder how the Autobots are holding up. Mainly Forward and Nowli, actually." He gave it a moment of thought, a moment Glyde used to prepare himself for Cloud's reaction.

"Uh, Cloud," Glyde said after that moment. Cloud looked him in the optic. "Nowli was offlined by one of the Seekers. It happened after Shadow attacked you and you fell into stasis." Glyde looked down, slight anger being suppressed. He realized that anger was shared throughout the both of them.

"And you still joined them?"

Glyde should have expected that. His head snapped up. "I didn't join them, I was with my family only!" Cloud shook his head, looking away. Glyde pouted; he didn't like it when someone thought less of him and wouldn't even say anything. "Are you trying to say something?"

Cloud looked back to him. "I know you only went with our creators and sister. I was shaking my head at the Seeker that committed the crime, not you. Unless it was you." Before Glyde could retort, Cloud smiled at him. Glyde shut his mouth, understanding that he was only being teased.

"I need to refuel," Glyde decided. He didn't know exactly where the energon was kept, but some exploring should do the trick. The ship wasn't too big anyway. Cloud followed him as he searched for energon. They found the room near the back, cube ready to be filled. Glyde filled one for himself, devouring it quickly. Cloud chuckled at Glyde eagerness.

Glyde quickly remembered the shield he left in the room Cloud had been in. "I'll be right back." He calmly left, going to get his sheild. It didn't take him long to retrieve it. He stashed in in subspace, after shutting it down first. He hurried back for no reason really, finding Cloud getting himself his own energon.

As Cloud busied himself with a cube of energon, Glyde heard a ping. His comm. link was open, and it was Slipstream.

"Everyone regroup in the alleyway Thundercracker, Skywarp, Sunstorm, and I had used when we went to rescue Acid Storm and Dawn."

Glyde had no idea where that was, or if he should even go. He knew Cloud would tell him not to go, but Glyde almost wanted to go. He wanted to see what shape they were in. Maybe it would help him decide what to do. That's an argument he could use on Cloud to get him to go to. The elder twin did want to know what to do in their future, and this meeting might help the both of them. Glyde was sure he could find them, wherever they were.

"Hey, Cloud," Glyde started. Cloud turned his head towards him. "I got a message from Slipstream telling us to regroup." He needed to word this well if he was going to get his brother to go. "I thought that, maybe, we should go. It may help with any problems, or thoughts-"

"We're going."

That surprised Glyde. He hadn't thought it would be that easy to persuade Cloud into going with him. In fact, he didn't even think he did persuade him. It was possible that Cloud didn't need any persuasion to go.

Cloud didn't need to hear the rest of Glyde's thoughts. He was curious himself about what Slipstream and the others were planning on doing. If he had to guess which side would win this battle overall, he would say the Autobots. First off, there were many more Autobots than Seekers. In fact, that may be the reason Slipstream was calling a meeting. Maybe she had realized that they weren't going to win and was calling a final retreat. If that was the case, then maybe Cloud and Glyde shouldn't go. Cloud didn't think it wise to be caught with them. Second, not all of the Seekers had great skill in fighting.

"Okay then," Glyde agreed, heading towards the exit. "Go ahead and open it, I'll meet you at the exit."

Cloud didn't move. "I don't know how."

Glyde turned back towards his brother sheepishly. "Oh yeah, well then I'll go ahead and do it. I'll meet you there." Cloud nodded walking the short distance there. After a moment, the door opened. Cloud waited for Glyde to show up before transforming and flying off. Glyde at first was behind him, but the thrill of flying overtook him and he soon passed up Cloud. Cloud didn't make any attempts at catching up to his younger twin. He just followed him, believing Glyde to have a better idea of where they were supposed to go if any. Cloud had no idea where the meeting place was.

"Wait, Glyde," Cloud called out, transforming to hover. Glyde flew back, transforming only a few metres away.

"Yeah?" Glyde answered.

"What if we didn't go to the meeting, but just listened in to it instead?"

Glyde thought about that. "How are we going to listen in on it without them noticing us?"

Cloud honestly hadn't thought of that. "You don't have any signal dampener, do you?" Glyde shook his head.

"All I have is this." He pulled the shield out of subspace and turned it on. "It won't help with sneaking around though." He switched it off and put it back in subspace. He himself couldn't think of anyway to listen in. "Maybe they won't notice?" He shrugged.

"Well, in the meantime, let's try and find _their_ signals." They both agreed on that, flying around the damaged portion of the city. Cloud was unsurprised to find the signals after so little time searching. He told Glyde, and they both transformed and landed rather close to the alleyway. Glyde peaked into it, seeing only some of the Seekers. Among these Seekers was Slipstream, Spinshade, Shadow, Dawn, Downpour, Thundercracker, Skyliner, Jetstream, Streaker, and Sunstorm. Blitzwing was there too. Most of them looked like they had fought a tough brawl, which they probably had. Glyde noticed that Streaker, Jetstream, and Shadow all had more wounds than the last time he had seen them.

Slipstream looked around her at them all. "Is this really it?"

"I'm here, who else do you need?" Thundercracker asked. Everyone ignored this.

Cloud turned to watch as well. He noticed Shadow staring in their direction, but she didn't say anything to reveal them. The twins weren't being that discrete about their position, even though they tried.

"Those Autobots truely are amazing if they were able to defeat so many of us," Sunstorm commented.

"Thanks for the input," Slipstream said sarcastically, "but what we need is more forces." Cloud knew there would be too many Autobots for them to handle. "Strong forces. But with so many possibly unuseful to us, it would take too long for us to rebuild an army."

Hothead decided to share his idea. "We should just crush them all now!" He made a fist with his servo.

"I second that!" Spinshade agreed. Glyde just then realized that his other trinemate was missing. He understood Spinshade's pain, what it was like to lose bots close to him. Though, in his case, those bots turned out to still be online, just in detention. Still, it hurt.

"I'll lead us," Thundercracker offered.

"Haven't you thick-bolted morons learned anything yet?" Slipstream questioned them. "If we couldn't do it before with good health and more numbers, what makes you think we can now?"

Skyliner, who had been ignoring them up until that point, came out of his thoughts with a suggestion. "Why don't we wait for them to come to us?"

Slipstream took that idea better than the other three's plan. "I do have one more reinforcement, if I can give her enough time to get here. In fact, she should already be here." She activated a comm. link, but it was private and unheard by everyone else.

Cloud retreated behind his hiding place, pulling Glyde back with him so they were invisible to the Seekers. Using a private comm. link, he conversed with Glyde.

"They're going to lose."

Glyde nodded. "I know," he replied back through the connection. "And we shouldn't be around when they are defeated."

"I agree, but I don't really want to be separated from Shadow and our creators." Glyde felt the same. "On the other hand, staying with them would mean we'll be assumed as being on their side."

"Can't argue with that logic. I still think we should leave planet for some stellar cycles."

Cloud smiled. "We may have to."

Glyde looked back into the alley. Slipstream looked upset. "I'll be back," she told the others, seemingly vexed. Glyde had half a processor to follow her, but he didn't think Cloud would want to. Then again, he had been wrong before. Looking at Cloud, he asked him through the connection.

Responding, Cloud said "She would notice our signatures much more easily if it was just the three of us than in a situation like now." Glyde nodded, slightly disappointed at not being able to follow her. It would have given them something to do.

Spying again, he saw Slipstream leap into the air, transforming and flying off into the distance. He moved to hide again, but unfortunately someone else had noticed him.

"Glyde?" Streaker had announced. _Slag._

Glyde turned and gave a sheepish smile to his sire. "Uh, hi?" Cloud, from his hiding spot, closed his optics in irritation. He knew now that there was nothing that could be decided upon. They would just have to stay amoungst the other Seekers, if only for the moment. Knowing he wouldn't be able to conceal himself for long, he joined Glyde and followed the younger twin as they approached the other Seekers.

* * *

><p><strong>Ah! How long has it been? I am really sorry, seriously. I just lost interest in this story half-way through this chapter. I originally planned to make this one longer, but it didn't work out with POV and I decided that it'll have to be split into two chapters. I recently got back into Transformers, so some motivation returned. And this chapter is so short, I don't like chapters this short. Especially after so long a wait. But anyway, this is the second chapter written from Cloud's POV. Well, some of it is from Glydes, but it was hard not to go from one to another. So I just combined them like this.<strong>

**Thanks for reading! And again, sorry for the wait! I'll try not to take so long with the next upload. Key word: Try.**


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